Flawed Perfection
by Celebony
Summary: [Sequel to Recnac Transfaerso] Finally, Harry's in for a perfect summer with his godfather and friends, or so it begins. But being Harry Potter means that nothing can stay peaceful for long. {Complete}
1. Beginnings

**Author's Note: **Er...welcome to the sequel everyone!!!

I...........................................................................................I

It was after midnight and the Burrow was dark and silent. The usual clutter littered the house. Yet, the pranks, coats, and shoes that lay around were like a frozen snapshot of the warm chaos the Burrow held during the day. For now, the only movement in the house was the rising and falling of chests of the sleeping family members.

Ron's room, however, did not rest in the same peace the rest of the house did. The redhead's face was covered in beads of cold sweat and his eyebrows were knitted as he tossed and turned in his sleep.

"No," he murmured as a nightmare pulled him into its depths. "No, Harry, run. Leave 'im alone...no, no, stop!"

His mutters grew louder, waking up Pigwidgeon who eyed the boy curiously from his perch.

"NO!!" Ron began screaming in his sleep. Tears dripped out from the corners of his eyes and streamed down his temples. "NO! Harry, wake up!! Don't be dead! NO!!"

One by one, the other members of the Weasley household shot up in bed. They all raced to Ron's room, the twins arriving first.

"Ron! Ron!" Fred called, shaking his younger brother's shoulders. "Wake up! It's just a dream!"

"Noooo!" Ron yelled, thrashing around wildly.

Ginny rushed off and returned with a cup of water from the bathroom. She raced over and splashed it on Ron's face.

Ron's eyes shot open as he abruptly sat up in bed, nearly knocking heads with Fred who was looming over him worriedly.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley finally arrived, slightly out of breath from running up four flights of stairs.

"He's dead! You-Know-Who killed him!" their youngest son sobbed.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley shot each other a look.

"Ron, it was a dream, just a dream," Fred said, firmly grasping Ron's shoulders to steady the younger boy.

Ron shook his head frantically. "Harry's dead! He wouldn't wake up and he was cold and he wasn't breathing!" he insisted through hiccupping sobs. Fred pulled his little brother into a hug.

"Harry's alive again, remember? He came back; you talked to him. You rode the train home with him," George gently reminded him, but Ron simply shook his head as he wept into Fred's shoulder.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley nodded at each other and Mrs. Weasley hurried back down the stairs. She ran to the fireplace and lit a fire with her wand. After quickly digging her hand into the flowerpot on the mantle, she threw a pinch of Floo powder into the flames. As soon as the fire turned green she jumped in and shouted, "the Lighthouse."

She stepped out into the dark living room of Sirius Black's country home and called through the house.

"Sirius! Harry!"

Moments later, Sirius appeared from a door down the hall. He was still in his nightclothes and seemed worried.

"Molly? What's wrong?" he asked in a concerned tone.

"Mrs. Weasley?" came a tired voice from the top of the stairs. Harry rubbed his tired eyes and slipped on his glasses. "Whassamatter?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Hello dear. Ron's had a bit of a nightmare and he's really shaken up. It was about...that day...so would you mind spending the night? I think you might be the only one who can calm him down," she quickly explained.

Harry nodded, slightly more awake, and started down the stairs. "Of course, if that's okay with you, Padfoot."

"Of course. Go on. I hope Ron feels better, Molly. Floo powder's on the mantle."

Mrs. Weasley thanked him and went back through the fire, Harry following close behind after saying goodbye to his godfather.

As soon as he was through, Mrs. Weasley grabbed his hand and hurried to the stairs, Harry trailing close behind.

As they neared the top, Harry could hear loud sobbing coming from above. He became increasingly worried, having never heard his best friend cry so hard.

Mrs. Weasley pulled him into Ron's room where Ron was still crying into Fred's shoulder as Ginny rubbed his back comfortingly.

"See, look Ron, Harry's here," George gently informed him. Ron sniffed and looked up. His siblings cleared away as Harry walked up.

"Harry?" Ron hiccupped.

"Yeah Ron, it's me," he said reassuringly, taking Fred's place on Ron's bed. Ron sobbed and wrapped his arms around his friend, now crying into Harry's shoulder. Harry hugged his friend back, trying to calm him.

"You died. I saw it all over again. You were dead. I had to watch him kill you," Ron tearfully explained, shaking uncontrollably.

"It's okay, I'm alive now."

Harry heard the rest of the Weasleys quietly leave to try to get back to sleep, knowing there was nothing else for them to do here.

"But the cancer. Oh gods, when you collapsed in the hall..." he started, voice quivering with fright and grief.

"The cancer's gone too, remember? It's not coming back."

Ron paused and then nodded into Harry's neck. He squeezed his eyes shut, letting a few more tears fall as he began to calm down. He eventually pulled back, looking down as he wiped his tears away on the back of his pajama sleeve.

"Do you want to go make some tea?" Harry asked gently.

Ron sniffed and nodded, his gaze still focused on his lap.

The two quietly made their way down to the kitchen. Harry led a still dazed Ron to the table and made him sit down as Harry began bustling around making tea, something he had done often at the Dursleys.

He soon brought over the two steaming cups. Setting one down in front of Ron, he then slid into the chair next to him.

"You must think I'm a total idiot," Ron muttered, embarrassed, as he stared at his cup.

"Of course not. Don't be stupid. If anyone can understand about nightmares it's me," he said with a sympathetic smile.

Ron rolled his teary eyes. "There's a difference between visions and just stupid bad dreams."

"Yeah, but I have nightmares too. Bad memories, worries." Seeing that Ron still looked upset, Harry continued in a lighter tone. "Of course then there's the other kind of dream, like when I dreamt I was in a Quidditch match against a sheep."

This got a small chuckle from Ron, who finally looked up and met Harry's eyes. "Really?" he asked quietly.

"Yup. There was a farmer on the ground running around shouting tips at the sheep and I thought that was really unfair," Harry said with a grin.

"Wouldn't it be slightly difficult for it to catch a Snitch without hands?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Well, logic didn't exactly play a great factor in that dream," Harry pointed out.

The two sipped their tea. Harry looked up at the Weasley's family clock and smiled. They had added a hand for him once they had found out he was alive.

"Thanks. For coming and everything," Ron said quietly.

"No problem."

The two finally began to feel the late hour and wearily climbed back up to the highest room. The two practically collapsed onto their respective beds. Ron's small room now had two beds permanently squeezed into it since the Weasleys had declared that they were expecting Harry to come around _a lot._

"Night, Har," Ron murmured.

"G'night, Ron," Harry mumbled.

Minutes later, the Burrow was back to its silent state.

I.........................................................................................I

The next morning, after having breakfast at the Burrow upon Mrs. Weasley's insistence, Harry, still clad in his pajamas from the night before, stumbled into the cozy living room of Sirius's house.

The cottage sat in the middle of a large field, which had grassy hills on one side some woods on the other. Sirius had built a large pen for Buckbeak, who seemed to enjoy it very much. The hippogriff often flew around, but never out of sight of the cottage and always returned to his pen when he was done. It was far away from any other house and the dirt road that led to it connected to a main road miles and miles away, with many other forks in the path to confuse anyone that ventured onto it. It was surrounded by Muggle repellant charms and now with many more protective spells and wards surrounding it to keep them safe. From what the ex-convict told Harry, the cottage named the Lighthouse was much smaller than the Black House, the mansion his family had owned for generations.

Harry didn't know the whole story, but apparently, Sirius had never gotten along with his family. The young Gryffindor had been shocked to find out that his godfather's family had supported the dark arts. Sirius had told him that he had run away when he was young and had stayed with James Potter until he was able to buy his own place, this very cottage. He had named it the Lighthouse in rebellion against his family as a statement of his dedication to the light side and his disassociation with the Black family.

At first, Sirius told him, the cottage had seemed far too small for the man's liking, as he had spent his whole life living in a huge manor. But he had quickly gotten used to the cozy place and now felt more at home here than he ever could have back at the cold, intimidating Black House.

When his parents had died, the manor had gone to Sirius, merely because he was the only one to give it to, but Sirius had never wanted to move back into it.

He had given Harry the choice of living in either place, but Harry had fallen in love with the cottage as soon as he had walked through the door and wasn't even interested in seeing the huge manor that Sirius didn't like. When he had announced this, Sirius had grinned broadly and showed Harry the room he had been working on for so long.

Harry had opened the door and his eyes had grown wide at the sight.

He was now walking up to that same room after giving a quick hello to Sirius and Remus who were talking in the kitchen.

He flung open the door and smiled at the sight of his room. _His_ room. Not the cupboard under the stairs, not Dudley's second bedroom, not Ron's bedroom, not the Gryffindor boys' dorm. He took a quick look back at the plaque on the door.

_Harry's Room._

He grinned happily, as he had been doing every time he'd seen it since he had arrived a week ago. He was so proud of that plaque and his room in general because it was his and because Sirius had spent so much time and effort into making it special for him.

Harry closed the door behind him and looked around his room appreciatively as he did each time he entered it. Sirius and Remus had been teasing him about it, constantly informing him that nothing new had popped up while he had been out of it. Of course, no matter how much Sirius joked about it, Harry's constant amazement with the simple room delighted Sirius to no end.

The walls were an off-white color. A small desk sat under the large window, which had maroon curtains tied back with thin gold rope. There was a bed resting in the corner under a second window with a maroon quilt scrunched up on top of the white sheets.

When he had first walked into the room, the walls had been bare and boxes full of posters and pictures littered the floor. Sirius simply explained that he didn't know what Harry wanted, so he got a bunch of options. Now, the Gryffindor flag that was given out for Quidditch games had been enlarged and was hanging above his bed. There was a poster of the Wicked Witches of the West on one of the walls, since they were really the only wizard band Harry knew and it reminded him of the ball from the previous year. A large poster of the Irish National Quidditch Team was surrounded by several smaller ones of Quidditch in general, in memory of the Quidditch World Cup he had attended with the Weasleys.

Ron had given him an extra Chudley Cannons poster and had insisted it be hung up in Harry's room. Harry had done so, but had hung a picture of the Tornados, the rivals of Ron's favorite Quidditch team, right next to it. Now the two teams constantly competed for the attention of whoever was in the room and fought with each other, crowding at the edges of the posters to shout silent profanities at the other team, occasionally making rude gestures with their broom sticks. Ron had responded quite indignantly to the enemy poster at first, but after a few minutes of watching the two teams go at it, he had to admit it was quite entertaining.

One wall contained a large bulletin board on which hung pictures of his friends, his prefect badge, entertaining notes that he and Ron had passed to each other during boring lessons, articles from Quidditch magazines and other things that made the room his.

Though he kept the room fairly neat, he had made a special point of putting out all his school supplies in plain view, as he had never been able to do at the Dursleys. His cauldron sat the top of his dresser, neatly surrounded by bottles of potions ingredients. His schoolbooks were all stacked right beside it.

And Harry wasn't the only one to enjoy the new living quarters. Hedwig's cage was now always left open, allowing her to come and go as she pleased, or simply fly happily around the house.

Harry greeted Hedwig cheerfully as he opened a drawer and pulled out a new shirt, as Sirius had seen it fit to by him some clothes of his own and throw away the rags that the Dursleys had given him to wear.

He quickly showered, dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen.

As he entered, Remus and Sirius looked up from their cups of tea with fond smiles.

"Hey Padfoot, hey Moony," he greeted the two as he poured himself some tea.

"Hey Harry, make yourself a piece of toast while you're up," Sirius ordered.

Since Harry had "woken up", Sirius had been trying to make him regain the weight he had lost while he was sick. It seemed that every time Harry stood still for a minute, Sirius was there trying to force him to eat.

"I ate at the Weasleys," he said, sitting down next to Remus. "And you know that Mrs. Weasley's even worse than you at trying to force feed me."

Remus chuckled.

"Well, I've got to defend my title then," Sirius said with a grin and tossed Harry a piece of a bagel.

"Sirius, I'm going to explode if I eat another bite!" he said tossing it back.

"Well, that would be an interesting show, wouldn't you say Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, bloods and guts everywhere. How charming," Remus joked.

"I'd much like to see it," Sirius said, tossing the bagel back to Harry, who simply caught it and then set it down next to his cup with no intention of eating it, sticking out his tongue at Sirius in a childish declaration of triumph. "Come on, Harry, Snape said to keep you well-fed to make sure you stay healthy!" Sirius insisted.

"Yes, but I don't think he wanted you to kill me," Harry said taking a small sip of his tea. He noticed Sirius's face pale and immediately felt guilty for his words.

Everyone seemed awfully touchy about any jokes that mentioned death or illness. A few days after he had woken, he had cracked a joke about feeling as if he hadn't eaten in a week, but instead of even the faintest smile, he had received a half-hour lecture from Sirius about how his joke was indeed _not_ funny. He knew he'd soon have to start insisting that everyone lighten up around him and stop treating him as if he was going to drop dead at any second, but figured he would let them have time to get over the scare he had put them all through. As was obvious by Ron's nightmare last night, some people still needed time.

"So what are you going to do today, Harry?" Remus asked, trying to snap Sirius out of his little mournful daze.

"Well, avoiding Hermione at all costs for sure. She's trying to get me and Ron to start our summer homework! It's the second week of the holidays! But she keeps saying that we should get a head start, like it's a race or something!" Harry said exasperatedly.

The two adults chuckled.

"I think it's great that Hermione's so ambitious. You can tell her that if she has any questions she can come and ask me," Remus said pleasantly. Sirius looked at him in disgust, horrified at the mere thought of being ambitious in school.

"Fine, but don't you dare give her any extra credit assignments or extra practice things, or she'll drag Ron and me into doing it too. I don't need any extra summer work," Harry said with a slight shutter at the thought. Sirius and Remus exchanged a look that Harry immediately knew he didn't like.

"Actually Harry," Remus said cautiously, "I talked with Professor Dumbledore and we thought it would be a good idea to test your magic a bit. He said we can bring you back to Hogwarts at any time and we can retest your dueling abilities and your spell casting. We haven't had a chance to really check your magic since you were cured, so we don't know what the lasting effects on your magic might be."

Harry grew slightly worried.

"Sure, but why? I mean, do you think something's wrong with me? I'll still be able to do magic, won't I?" Harry asked in a slight panic.

"We believe your magic has simply gone back to its original state, but we're just checking as a double precaution. Nobody's ever been through precisely what you went through and your body, your life energy, and your magical energy all went through a great ordeal, so we want to check them all to make sure you remain healthy. Also, you've spent about half a year using very powerful magic, so we want to get you used to using normal magic again."

Harry nodded and felt a little more relieved. The thought of not being able to do magic anymore was horrifying. It brought back memories of the Dursleys for some reason, and Harry had to quickly chase them from his mind.

"So, does this mean I won't pick up on lessons as quickly either?" he asked, disappointed.

"I'm afraid so. But that won't be so bad, will it? You'll just have to work harder and I'm sure Hermione will help you do that. Plus, you've got me to help you with anything I can, though you've always been a brilliant student in Defense, so you probably won't need any extra lessons there."

Harry blushed and sipped his tea. "Er...thanks Moony, but don't say that, 'cause then when I need help I'm not going to want to go to you for it," he said truthfully.

"Why's that?" Remus asked. Harry cocked his head to the side.

"Because I'd know you thought I could do better," he said with a shrug.

"Harry, I'd never be disappointed in you," Remus said seriously.

Harry looked at him momentarily before nodding, knowing that Moony's words could easily be proven false, but decided to go along with it anyway to avoid a talk.

Harry was a bit relieved at the absence of talks so far. When he had come back at the end of the school year, everyone had told him to prepare for a long talk, yet none had ever come. Now that the heat of the situation had diminished, so, apparently, had the desire for anyone to have a deep conversation with Harry about all the events of the previous year. And he was relieved, or so he kept telling himself.

Truth was that he felt rather stupid and frustrated with himself. He had dreaded the talks so much, anticipating the uneasiness, the awkward feeling when somebody tried to get him to say he believed something he didn't truly believe. But when they hadn't come, he had felt....disappointed. All the doubts started flooding back. Maybe Sirius hadn't really thought this whole living arrangement through. It was one thing to have a boy around your bachelor pad for a few months, but now the cancer was gone and Harry would be staying there for a much longer time. Was Sirius realizing he had made a mistake and now secretly wanted Harry to leave? Maybe now that the threats had all vanished and the drama disappeared, everyone was realizing that Harry wasn't as important to them as they had said. Maybe all the things that Sirius had said to him about loving him like a son were just lies to make him happy before he died. He had been dreading the talks, but dreaded more what it meant that he wasn't getting them.

Yet he told himself that these thoughts were stupid, that Sirius wanted him around or he wouldn't have invited him or put so much effort into his room. That Ron and Hermione were happy to have him back, despite his occasional third-wheel status; that people were happy to have him back because they liked him, rather than for their own piece of mind. Harry knew it wasn't easy seeing someone die. He assured himself that people were happy that he would be around for a long time, that they had hated the promise of him disappearing by a certain date.

But the doubts kept creeping back.

He couldn't deny that while there was an expiration date hanging over his head, people seemed to care about him more. It was hard to explain but he couldn't help but feel that without all the threats on his life, he had turned into yesterday's news with more than just the public.

But no, he knew that those doubts weren't true. He wasn't supposed to want the talks. He was supposed to avoid them like the plague, so that's what he would do, because that was what he wanted. He was almost sure of it.

"Do you mind going back to the Burrow later today, Har?" Sirius asked with his mouth semi-full.

"Of course not, but is there some particular reason?" he asked curiously.

The two men sighed and exchanged a look.

"Well, Dumbledore's getting a bunch of people who were on the light side together," Sirius explained. "You've really already ended the war, Harry, before it even began, but it will take some time for it to really be over. You've gotten rid of the biggest obstacle, but there are still some of Voldemort's followers out there who aren't going to give everything up just yet. We're just going to try to round those ones up and put them away so everyone can be truly safe again."

"Until then, though, I'm afraid you're still in a bit of danger, Harry; there are some who aren't too happy about Voldemort's death. But there's nothing to worry about. The wards around the Lighthouse and the Burrow are impenetrable. You're probably even safer here than at Hogwarts. Hermione's house is also pretty well protected, along with your two friends, Eloise and Neville's houses. Of course, that means you won't be able to really go anywhere else without an adult until the rest of the Death Eaters are rounded up. I hope you understand," Remus said apologetically.

"Hey, everywhere I want to go seems covered. This beats staying at the Dursleys by a long shot!" he burst out. He wished he hadn't have mentioned it though when memories from his relatives house started flooding back.

He sipped his tea to hide his grimace and forced the thoughts out of his head. The two adults looked at him sympathetically, but didn't bring up the subject, which was what Harry was practically positive he was thankful for.

"I'm surprised Voldemort's little minions even know what to do with themselves without some leader's feet to grovel at," Harry said somewhat bitterly. He wasn't about to forget the image of being surrounded by a hundred masked figures as they proceeded to torture him with the Cruciatus Curse.

"Well, I'm sure they're following someone else temporarily. Nobody as powerful as Voldemort was, I assure you, but probably one of the higher up ones. It won't last long though. They really have nothing without Voldemort's power," Remus said confidently.

"By next summer, I'm sure you, Ron and Hermione will be roaming the streets of Diagon Alley like you own the place," Sirius said with a grin.

I.................................................................................................I

That night was the first of many nights at the Weasleys, knowing that Sirius, Remus, the Weasley parents and even the elder two Weasley sons were away at "Order meetings" as they called them.

Surprisingly, Harry didn't feel left out of these meetings. The previous year, he would have wanted to be in there, doing everything he could to help. Of course, the previous year, Voldemort had still been alive and it was unspoken knowledge that Harry was to defeat him. Now, the Order didn't even seem that exciting if all they were doing was rounding up the last of the Death Eaters. As Sirius had said, the war was really already over, the Order was just winning some last battles.

So on these nights, the twins were officially in charge, which seemed in and of itself a very large error in judgment. There was much testing of products, pranking, Wizard's Chess, gambling with Bertie Botts Beans, and eating everything they could.

On one of the first nights, Harry had been asked to bring Hedwig. He had entered to find the four surrounded by stacks of paper and coloring utensils, all furiously writing.

"Come sit down, Harry," Fred said, gesturing to a seat.

"We're making fliers," explained George.

"For our Grand Opening next week," Fred clarified.

"To send to everyone we know to start handing out," George added.

"So start decorating," Fred finished.

Harry looked at Ron and Ginny, who grinned excitedly. Harry studied the fliers that they had made and began copying the same information down in his neatest handwriting.

"So you're really opening soon?" he asked eagerly. "Is everything ready?"

"Yup, everything's ready to go, now let's just hope there are some customers there as well," said Fred.

"We need some more '_Great gifts for your kids' _ones to send to Katie, Alicia, and Lee. Their parents are bringing them to work to hand out," George instructed.

"And Angelina's at Quidditch camp, so we need to send a bunch of '_Perfect for revenge for your evil campmates_' themed ones her way," Fred added. "Plus some mail orders since they can't come themselves."

They spent the rest of the night making fliers and sending them off in stacks. Letters went out to everyone they knew.

At some point, a coloring fight broke out. Harry had accidentally marked Ginny's hand with the green, so she drew a blue line down his arm, which of course meant he had no choice but to retaliate.

Somehow, they were all drawn into the fight, and when they finally stopped, they were each streaked with every color. Harry had come out the worst, looking a bit as if he was wearing tribal war paint. He had a sun drawn around his left eye and the words "Ginny is a Goddess" written up his right arm. Above his scar, there was now a cloud for it to come out of and rain surrounding it. At one point, everyone had ganged up on him and pinned him down, lifting up his shirt and wrote "Weasley # 8" on his back as would appear on the back of a jersey. At that point, he had briefly panicked that he might not have put on his Concealment Charms, but was relieved to find his back completely smooth.

He did take pride in knowing he had managed to write "Tornados" across Ron's forehead. He had also managed to color the tip of Ginny's nose black and give her whiskers. Ginny had used orange and green to turn Fred's eyebrows into two carrots, and George had somehow ended up with an eye in the middle of his forehead and an extra mouth on his neck.

Fred found a camera and they made sure to capture their beautiful artwork on film.

They all trooped to the kitchen and began to scrub their arms and faces, but soon discovered that it wasn't coming off at all. Ginny ran and found the box. They were slightly horrified to read that the marker was not washable, and would only come off with a thorough cleansing spell. And of course, since it was summer, they would have to beg the adults for mercy, which they knew would be very difficult to get.

True enough, they were stuck with their colorful faces for three days before the much-amused adults gave in.

With every day spent with either the two remaining Marauders or the Weasleys, it was already beginning to be the best summer Harry had ever had. It was hard to imagine that if things had been only slightly different, he would have either been bed-ridden or dead during these first of the summer days. He hadn't found some hidden meaning of life; most often he even found himself forgetting what a gift each day was. He did know that he had never felt so happy and relaxed. He hoped it would stay this blissful forever. Harry didn't need or want anymore of the drama that had made his life so famous. Right now, he could only describe things as perfect.

But as he had always insisted, he never really went looking for trouble. Trouble seemed to have a way of finding him.


	2. Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes

Author's note:  Hey everyone!  I know I said once every two weeks, and I really do still need that time in between chapters, but I was so surprised and happy to see that I got 100 reviews for chapter 1 that I'm posting this chapter early as a thank you to all those who reviewed!  Thank you!  You have no idea how much your reviews mean to me.  They are honestly what gives me the motivation to keep writing.  Without further ado, here's the chapter.  I know many of you will be disappointed in a certain development, but please understand that it had to be done.  Oh yes, and Fred and George can do magic now since they are legal wizards, but they didn't exactly pay that much attention in class to spells that didn't pertain to their prank shop.  The ink they were using in their marker fight would only come off with a specialized cleaning spell that they didn't know well enough to try on their skin.  Wouldn't want to get rid of their freckles all together, now would we?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

That Saturday, Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes had its grand opening.  Ron, Ginny, and Harry had gone with Fred and George to make sure everything was ready before opening at eight o' clock.  

The three younger teenagers looked around in awe.  The walls had been painted orange (in honor of the Weasley spirit) and covered with shelves, which were fully stocked.  Cards with descriptions of what each prank or mischief-making gadget did and their prices hung below each product.  There was even a testing area for the products with orange stickers next to their names, as those were the only ones safe to be tested indoors.  

"You guys, this is fantastic!" Ginny said enthusiastically.  The twins beamed with pride as the other three praised their store.  

As it got closer to opening, Sirius and Remus arrived.  Ginny, Ron and Harry each took stacks of fliers and set out into Hogsmeade with Sirius and Remus, who made sure to have one of them always with their eye on Harry. 

They passed out fliers to witches and wizards, encouraging them to come.  They focused on teenagers and kids since they seemed to be the most enthusiastic about the place.  

Harry kept smoothing his fringe over his forehead but some recognized him nonetheless, paying more attention to searching for his scar than the actual flier.  Harry just put on a cheery face and insisted they come.  He figured he might as well use his fame for something useful.  

Eventually they made it around to the Three Broomsticks, where they passed out fliers for a few minutes until Kota appeared by Portkey.  She looked a little green.

"Ugh, I don't think I'll ever get used to that," she said as she took a few wobbly steps toward them.  

"Agreed," Harry said sympathetically.  She grinned at him and mussed up his hair and he gave his usual whine for her to quit making his hair even less presentable.  

"Alright, let's go see my lover-boy," she said brightly before noticing that Ginny and Ron were right behind her, now both sniggering.  She blushed furiously.  "Er, hi Ginny… Ron," she greeted, clearly mortified.  

Harry informed her that she was a complete nerd and dodged a smack upside the head, strategically placing himself so that Ron was between the two of them as they walked back to the store, handing out the last of the fliers along the way.  

Kota looked around in awe, as she had when visiting Diagon Alley.  Harry remembered when all this was new to him, and couldn't help but feel an inexplicable wave of happiness, which immediately rubbed off on the rest of them.  He almost declared that it was good to be alive, but stopped himself before he accidentally ruined the good mood.  

They finally reached the shop to find a line of people that reached out the door.  The four looked at each other with grins before running around to the back door.  They whispered the password and were allowed into the back room where they bumped into Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell who were rapidly pulling boxes off the shelves and looking through them.

"Hey guys!" Angelina said brightly.  "It's a madhouse out there!"

"It's packed and things are flying off the shelves like crazy!" Katie added with an excited grin. 

The six of them entered the store.  Katie and Angelina were right; it was packed with customers.  Many of them were from Hogwarts, having shown up either to show their support or simply to stock up on their prank supplies.  Harry heard a few of the younger ones discussing how they were getting defense and retaliation pranks, just so they weren't caught unprepared by others who had visited the shop.

"Oh, I can't wait for Christmas!" Ron said cheerily as he eyed the long line to the cash register.  "Fred and George will be so rich!  And the more money they have, the bigger the presents they can buy!"  

"Just wait until Mum and Dad see this," Ginny exclaimed.  "Then they can stop harassing poor Fred and George about their lousy N.E.W.T. scores."

Almost as if she could sense when people were talking about school, Hermoine chose that moment to enter the store and bounded over to them happily.  She hugged Ginny hello and then Harry, pressing her cheek against his momentarily in a discreet attempt to check his temperature, something that Harry found quite annoying.  But he was in too good of a mood and decided to let it slide. 

When she started giving Ron a thorough greeting snog, Harry and Ginny groaned in disgust and moved away.  Kota had already found George, and was helping him restock shelves so they could talk.  

Throughout the day, people came and went, but the store remained crowded until closing when the twins had to tell people to come back on Monday.  

Earlier, Sirius and Remus had stopped by (Sirius got one of practically everything).  Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had stopped by and looked around in amazement before declaring how proud they were of the twins.  Mrs. Weasley didn't even bring up their N.E.W.T. scores once.  Even Professors McGonagall and Flitwick showed up, both complimenting their uses of transfiguration and charms in making their products.  They each bought a few of the milder pranks to give to their nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.  The thought of the Professors having relatives at all seemed somewhat strange to the teenagers.  

After the final people were out and the store locked up, only the four Weasley teenagers, Harry, Hermione, Kota, and Angelina were left.  Fred and George counted up the register to find a sum of money that exceeded their expectations.

"Well, it's the grand opening so you always make the most money then.  It'll be slower from now on," George said as they all stared at the number Fred had written on a piece of parchment to show the total. 

"Anuhk," was Ron's only reply.  He and the other three present Weasleys were in a slight state of shock.

Fred hopped off the counter where he had been sitting and looked around with a laugh.

"We've sold out of some of the products, and the others are nearly gone!" he said excitedly.  "We're going to need to get working on some more right away."

George went into the back room and returned with some firewhiskey and butterbeer.  They found some cups and poured out the drinks.  

"Here's to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes," Angelina said raising her cup. 

"To Fred and George for not letting Mum intimidate them into focusing on their studies rather than their inventions," Ginny added proudly, raising her cup.  

"Because your Mum can be quite scary when she wants," Harry inserted.  Everyone who knew Mrs. Weasley nodded with a chuckle.

"Though education is important too," Hermione added, holding up her cup.  Everyone who knew Hermione rolled their eyes with a laugh.

"But money is better," put in Ron, holding his cup high and grinning at Hermione who glared at him. 

"And to the coolness of all things magical," said Kota, raising her cup as well.

"And to Harry," said Fred.

"For starting it all," said George.  The two raised their cups. 

"The shop, that is, not all things magical," Fred added with a wink.

Harry was slightly taken aback.

"We already told them," George informed him.

"Cheers," Fred announced.

"Cheers," said everyone else, clinking cups and sipping their firewhiskey.  Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all began coughing and making faces as the drink burned their throats, not used to the taste.  Kota seemed to have no problem with the strong alcohol and joined the older teenagers in laughing at the sputtering younger ones.  

Ron seemed determined to finish his, but the other three switched to butterbeer.  Harry hadn't wanted to get drunk anyways, since he had always despised it when his uncle had gotten drunk.  Fred soon turned on the radio he had bought and put on a mixture of songs, some of which were popular, others which were simply fun to sing aloud, no matter how bad they truly were.  

"_Unfortunately it's true-oo-oo, my life's been such a drag, oh it has been so blue-oo-oo, since I fell in love with a hag!_" the twins, Ron, and Angelina, all getting thoroughly smashed, sang loudly as they danced wildly on top of the counters.  

Harry, Kota, Ginny, and Hermione all watched them in amusement as they played the hypothetical situation game.

"Alright, if you were stuck on a deserted island, what three items would you bring with you?" Ginny asked.  "Rules are: you can't have your wand and your things can't be used in an easy way to escape the island or communicate with people to get you off of it."

"_I adore the warts on her crooked nose_," Fred sang as if serenading Angelina.  His girlfriend smacked his arm for insinuating that she had a warty crooked nose.

"Okay, I'd bring a lighter, for making fire to cook things with, as a possible defense weapon, and so people could see the smoke if they were passing by on a boat.  Umm…and knife and a toothbrush," Harry concluded.

"_And the fungus that grows on her toes_," George belted.

"I'd bring a survival guide," Hermione started thoughtfully. "A lighter and a gun," she concluded nonchalantly.  Harry and Ginny looked at her in surprise, not having expected that last one from their responsible friend. 

"_And though she scares me can't you seeeeee?_" sang Angelina drunkenly.

"Alright new one.  Well, a variation.  If you were trapped on the same deserted island, and the same rules apply, what one person would you bring and they can't be an adult?" Kota asked.

"_That hag is just the one for meeeeeeee_!" Ron howled.

"Well, er…I guess Harry, since he always seems to get out of things and I think he'd keep me entertained until we did get off," Ginny said, trying not to blush.  

"Hey, thanks, Ginny!" Harry said with a lopsided grin.  Hermione and Kota shot each other a look.

"_Unfortunately it's true-oo-oo, my life's been such a drag, oh it has been so blue-oo-oo, since I fell in love with a hag!_"

There was a loud bang as Ron slipped off the counter and landed on the floor.  The twins and Angelina were laughing hysterically, since they were, in fact, thoroughly pissed.  Ron groaned and laughed hysterically in small intervals.  

The sober bunch finally convinced the not-so-sober ones to call it a night.  Ron insisted he wasn't pissed, but when Harry asked him what number came after four, he couldn't remember.  

"Alright Ron, you can stay the night at my house so your mum doesn't kill you," Harry said as he and Hermione held him up.  

Fred and George agreed to tell their parents.  They were going home since the alcohol hadn't affected them nearly as much and they were now legal adults in the Wizarding world. 

Kota Portkeyed home, while Hermione and Angelina Flooed their separate ways, each refusing to give their drunk boyfriends goodnight kisses.  Harry Flooed to the Lighthouse, catching Ron as he stumbled out a second later.  

"Siri, I'm home!" Harry called.  "And Ron's spending the night."

Sirius called back his greeting and told the boys goodnight.  

Harry practically dragged Ron to the stairs and tried to coax him into going up them.

"Come on Ron, I can't bloody well carry you," Harry said, trying to half-pull, half-push Ron up the stairs.

"But they're all swishy," Ron said gesturing wildly to the stairs in front of him before bursting out in giggles.  Harry looked at him as if he were insane. 

"Well, at least you're not a mean drunk, Ron," Harry muttered.  "You're a bit nutters, though."

"Nutters!  Like a—like a squirrel!" he laughed.  

Somehow, Harry eventually managed to get Ron up the stairs and into his bedroom.  He went to grab Ron the extra pair of pajamas he always kept at the Lighthouse, but when he turned back around, Ron had already climbed into Harry's bed and passed out.  

Harry sighed and took off Ron's shoes before pulling the blankets over him.  He pulled out the extra mattress under the bed and fixed up a decent bed for himself.  

In the middle of the night, Harry was woken when somebody stepped on his stomach and tripped.

Ron groaned loudly.

"Ron?" Harry asked with a wince as he poked his stomach gingerly.

"Need loo.  Going to throw up," was all he managed.  

Harry jumped up and quickly pulled Ron to his feet, handing him the rubbish bin, just in case he didn't make it down the hall.  

The rest of the night was spent with the two boys in the bathroom.  Harry drifted in and out of sleep, sitting against the counter, while Ron lied in front of the toilet for easy access.  

Throughout the night, every time he heard Ron start making pained moaning sounds, Harry woke and helped Ron get his head to the toilet bowl for another round of puking.  Ron asserted the solemn swear that he would never drink again during the few times he was actually coherent.  

*

The next morning, after Ron dunked his head in a sink full of cold water, the two boys staggered down to the kitchen.  They collapsed into chairs and laid their heads on the table.  

"So who wants fried eggs and sausage?" Sirius asked, turning around with two skillets.  Ron's face went a whitish-green.  He jumped out of his chair and raced out of the kitchen.  Harry and Sirius soon heard sounds of vomiting coming from the downstairs loo.  A minute later, Ron stumbled back in, his fingers massaging his temples and a grimace on his face.

Sirius chuckled.

"Let me guess, hangovers?"

Ron raised his hand with a groan.  "Just me.  Harry's the smart one.  He just stayed up with me the whole night," Ron said sliding gently back into his chair.  "Thanks for that, by the way," he added to Harry. 

Harry raised his groggy head off the table and waved dismissively.  "What are friends for?" 

"All right, let me whip up my hangover remedy.  James and I invented it since we were pretty big partiers at Hogwarts," he said as he pulled out things and began mixing them.  "I'm sort of surprised you didn't get plastered, Harry.  Your dad was a bit wild," Sirius said distractedly.  He sounded as if he would've liked Harry to have gotten smashed the night before so he could have relived his party-day memories of he and Harry's father.  

Even Ron seemed to notice Sirius's slightly disappointed tone, and jumped to his friend's defense.  "Yeah, well, Harry's lucky.  He can have fun without any alcohol.  And after last night, I think I'm going to learn to do that too since I will never even look at the stuff again."

Sirius plopped a glass of murky-brown liquid in front of Ron.  Ron looked at it skeptically.  

"You want me to drink that?" he asked weakly.  

"Yup.  Just close your eyes, pinch your nose, and down it.  Trust me," Sirius said with a grin.  

"If this is some evil joke, I'm going to sick Fred and George on you," Ron threatened before following Sirius's directions.  As soon as he was finished, he looked up in surprise.  "Hey!  That really does work!  What's in it?"

"You don't want to know," he said ominously.  "Now, you both look like you need some caffeine."  He plopped down some coffee in front of them along with the eggs and sausages, which Ron was much warmer to now. 

Sirius sat down and began regaling them with tales of the Marauder's old party days where he and Harry's dad would always end up swearing they would never drink again.  

Harry laughed along with Ron and his godfather, but couldn't help but feel a twang of jealousy toward Ron, who kept getting compared with Sirius and James.  

*

The next day, Harry, Remus and Sirius Flooed back to Hogsmeade and walked to Hogwarts.  Harry was a little nervous, worried that they would find that he really had lost all his magic and that he'd have to live as a Muggle for the rest of his life.  He knew he was being a bit ungrateful since he was, after all, alive when he shouldn't have been, but he couldn't help it. 

The three walked through the empty castle.  Harry was a bit weirded out that it was so completely empty, without a single student present except for himself.  They finally got to Dumbledore's office where they met up with the headmaster and Professor McGonagall. 

After the general greetings, they made their way down to the Great Hall.  It was so strange to see it so empty.  The tables were all gone and it just looked like a huge empty ballroom.  

They first tested his wandless magic, which simply didn't exist anymore, at least in no greater amounts than any other wizard.  He still remembered all the material he had learned the previous year, but when Professor McGonagall gave him a chapter of the Advanced Potions textbook to read, Harry found that he couldn't understand all of the new material.  Professor McGonagall showed him the wand movements and told him the spell to do a Transfiguration spell from the next year's curriculum, but it took Harry several times before he could do it.  He was still pretty good at dueling, but could no longer block spells without his wand or sense what people were going to do.  He did, however, still manage to disarm Professor McGonagall, Sirius, and Remus in one-on-one duals, and even managed to get the two Mauraders in a four-on-one duel before he was disarmed by the headmaster.  All in all, however, Harry was a little disappointed, suddenly thinking about all the advanced classes he was supposed to take based on his O.W.L. scores.  

"I'm still going to take you into my Advanced Transfiguration class, Harry," Professor McGonagall informed him.  Harry looked up in surprise.

"What?  But I'm so bad!  I won't be able to keep up," he protested.

"You aren't bad, it's just not as easy for you as it was last year.  I'd say you were of equal standard to most who got into my advanced class.  You've always been good at Transfiguration, you've just never really applied yourself.  If you try, however, I think you'll do very well in the class," Professor McGonagall said truthfully.  

"And you're obviously going to be in my Advanced Defense class," Remus said.  He was the first professor in years who was coming back for a second year in a row.  "You've always been the best in your grade at it, even back in your third year.  You're dueling is surprisingly good.  I didn't expect you to be able to get any of us, even on one-on-one dueling, since we have so much more experience, but I think you surprised us all, Harry," he said proudly.  Harry blushed and smiled shyly.

"Speaking of which, Harry, we should plan your schedule for next year since you didn't toward the end of last year," Dumbledore said.  Harry nodded. 

"He's going to be in my advanced class," Professor McGonagall said firmly.  She looked over to Harry who had opened his mouth to ask her to reconsider.  "No buts, Harry."

"And obviously Advanced Defense," Remus added.

"Any idea what you want to do after Hogwarts, Harry?" Dumbledore asked suddenly.  Harry shifted uncomfortably as all eyes were on him.

"Erm…not really.  I mean, I didn't really consider it last year when everyone was planning it out since I er…didn't really think it was an option," he said awkwardly.

"Well, you better start thinking about it now," Professor McGonagall said sternly.  "We don't want your potential to go to waste."

"Well, Hagrid will want you in his advanced class.  It'll be the first year he's doing it," Dumbledore said, noting it on a piece of parchment.

"But I didn't even finish the O.W.L." Harry pointed out sadly.  Lupin looked at him sympathetically, remembering how much Harry had regretted leaving the test, but he had just been too sick to continue it.  

"Harry, Hagrid says you're his best student.  He needs students who are unafraid to follow his directions, and he says you always volunteer for things.  I've already discussed it with him and he wants you in the class.  You can talk it over with him yourself, as he's asked if you can come down for a cup of tea after this," Dumbledore said merrily.  

Harry also settled for taking Herbology, since he knew that Ron was going to be in it, and turned down taking History of Magic and Astronomy as gently as possible.

"Oh and surely you want to take Advanced Divination," Professor McGonagall said in a serious tone.  However, at the look of horror on Harry's face, she laughed.  

"Er…that may not be the subject for me," he said politely.  The Gryffindor Head of House looked oddly triumphant.  

"So, we'll add Advanced Potions to your schedule and you're done," Dumbledore said.

"Whoa sir, wait.  You seem to be forgetting that I'm rubbish in Potions, with the exception of last year, that is.  I know Professor Snape won't want me in that class.  I'd better not."

"I have no doubts that Professor Snape does indeed want you in his class," Dumbledore said with raised eyebrows.  

"Not after knowing how little I understood the new stuff in that chapter," Harry said gesturing to the Advanced Potions book.  

"If you have trouble, I'm sure he could set up a tutoring schedule to help you along."

Harry looked at the headmaster incredulously before laughing unsurely.  

"You're not serious, right?" he asked.  He looked round at the others present, all of whom were looking equally skeptical.  But Dumbledore only smiled in his knowing way.  

"Of course I am.  You may not know it Harry, but Professor Snape does regularly tutor a few students who need help."

Harry looked at him in surprise.  "Okay, but how many of those students are in a house other than Slytherin?  I know plenty of people who need help in Potions who aren't in tutoring," Harry pointed out as respectfully as he could.

"Well, how many of them have asked?" Dumbledore asked.  He had a point, but Harry had to wonder if he realized what Snape would do to some kids if they had asked for tutoring.  Neville, for instance, probably would have been ready to be committed to St. Mungo's to deal with the trauma if he had ever asked.

Harry thought of himself on fairly good terms with Snape now, and didn't know how to say that he wasn't ready to go back to the nasty comments and evil looks he was sure to get if he entered the Advanced class with his lesser ability in Potions.  

" I'll tell you what, Harry.  I'll have a chat with Professor Snape about what we've found here today and let him decide for himself.  Besides, Mr. Weasley is due to have a talk with him as well, since, if I'm not mistaken, he's attempting to get into the class as well?"

Harry suddenly remembered that fact and it did make him feel slightly better knowing that if he did get in, it wouldn't just be him, Hermione and the Slytherins.  Plus, Ron was even more horrible at Potions than he was, though Harry would never say that out loud.  

Harry reluctantly agreed, but made Dumbledore promise to tell Snape about him not understanding that chapter and that this would probably be the trend.  

He then went down to Hagrid's hut for a cup of tea while the four adults talked.  

"Hagrid, are you sure it's okay that I didn't finish my O.W.L.?" he asked during their conversation.  Fang's head rested on his lap and Harry felt drool seeping through his right pant leg down toward his knee.

"O' course.  Don' be silly, Harry!  Yer my bes' student.  Don' think I don' notice tha' yer the on'y one who volunteers for things.  An' I know yer jus' as scared as the rest, but yeh trust tha' I won' let you get hurt and tha's the key," he said cheerily.  Harry chose not to mention the fact that there had been several times during the class where he had been certain he was going to get injured, but did whatever it was jut to help out Hagrid.  Now that he thought of it, however, he couldn't remember ever getting hurt when following Hagrid's instructions.  

He told Hagrid this and the half-giant beamed proudly.

"Well, o' course I wouldn't let yeh get hurt, Harry.  Then Hermione would have ter be my favorite student and she's not as fun as yeh."

At this moment Fang licked Harry's face as if to agree with Hagrid.  Harry blushed brightly and wiped off the sticky slobber from his cheek.  

"But anyway, I know yeh would've aced tha' test if yeh had jus' had the chance ter finish it," Hagrid said confidently, ruffling Harry's hair with his massive hand, nearly knocking him out of his chair.  

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N:  Okay, I'm going to try to cut down on review responses to get the next chapter out faster so even if I don't respond to yours, know that I've read it and love all of them.  I'm so glad to see some familiar names back from Recnac along with all the newbies.  You guys rock my world!  And please continue to review, because I LOVE REVIEWS!

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**LadyAbbeyBartlet**:  Don't worry, Neville, Eloise, and Hermione will all be in this fic and the first two will make their appearance soon.  Yes, there will definitely be romance in this story, not the main category or anything but there will be a bit more than in Recnac, and not all with H/G.  You're totally right about the twins thing.  I'm going to put a note about it in the Author's Note and make up some excuse for my mistake.  Lol.

**Grimmy D:** Okay, let's see if I can clear up the concealing charms thing. They are charms that will basically hide Harry's scars and stuff for him, sort of like a magical makeup.  During Hogwarts, Harry did them himself (this of course being in Recnac, not in canon) but only knew a weak one that wore off after a day, hence the need to replace them every morning.  Now that others know, and he can't do them himself, he had an adult simply put on a longer lasting one that will only need to be replaced every couple of weeks.  Hopefully that clears things up, but if you have anymore questions, feel free to ask!

**Terence**: Bonjour my pal.  Thank you so much for the wonderful support!  Lol, seriously?  A shrine?  Wow!  *feels special*  wow, you don't have to find award things or anything for my story lol!  You crazy girl, you're such an oddball!  Makes you that much more fun though! Lol.  

**Angel74: **Hey brilliant author you!  Thank you so much for the praise and I really hope you enjoy the sequel.  I'm going to continue to try to balance fun and angst, and hope it will all work out!  I can't wait for your next chapter as well and hope that you continue to enjoy mine!

**ParanoiaIn2005:  **YAY!  You're back!  I'm so glad you like Ron, and don't worry, emotions will be flowing through this fic like the Nile.  I really hope you continue to like this one! 

**Wiccan PussyKat:** lol, it's good to see you reviewing again! I'm so glad you liked the first chapter!  Harry's doubts in himself and others, which were set by the Dursleys long ago, will play a great role in this story.  As you can see, Harry's magic is back to normal.  It had to be done!  Thanks for reminding me about OWL results.  I admit I forgot about them!  Though there will be some romance in this, I'm going to try not to make it mushy, and all the other stuff will be intertwined throughout the sequel as much as I can manage.

Also thanks to:  **Liz, Pennypacker, ERMonkey, Queen of Insanity, Benevolence **(ooh, Cele, me like.  And yes, much much Harry angst but no animagi, sorry!), **Madame Moony **(lol, yes foreshadowing to let you all know that there is indeed a plot somewhere along the line!), **L.I.T Wanderer **(you don't like Harry bashing?  How did you even make it through Recnac? Lol, umm…you might not like this fic so much then.), **horsefan, Sailor C, Anora **(don't you worry.  *wink*), **Rhysel Ash, Formerly Known as Erin, Shinta4, Firnwilwarin,  Agnes, saz, SillyGillie, Eternally*Mine** (lol, you may be looking a bit too far into it, but I love the enthusiasm.  Actually that dream was based off one of my own, except in a surf competition and the farmer was pulling the sheep into shore with a rope.), **Fallen Sheep **(yes, the Stensons will be in this and Harry can do magic, but he's back to normal on that level. And don't worry, I'm going to do my best to balance the sick and the well, the angst and the good times, etc.), **Charmed1s, Helen, EriEka127**(well, I have written a lot, but the problem is that I don't necessarily write my stories in order.  So I have almost all the main scenes written and now have to go back and fill in the in between.)**, rofro05 **(hey, I'm glad you like the _how people are affected_ aspect since that's going to be a great deal of the story, as will many of the other points you mentioned!), **gizachick, Magnolia Lane **(well you seem to like the parts of this chapter that will play a major part throughout the sequel, so I hope you like it!), **holly, kneh13, Serpentsattire, Nemati, Ptijade, Happigolucki616, BabyBlu4, crazedbrat28, Charlie, Dramaqueen **(oh wow!  Well, thank your friend for me and I'm so happy you liked it!), **Shawn Pickett, M0rbidity, Arsenal, Evil Unicorn, Englishgirl, texasjeanette, madden** (lol, thank you for the long review!  And yes, Draco will play a big part in this!), **Zaptor **(lol, I don't know what you mean by special prize, but if you noticed, at the end of Recnac, I did give special thank you's to those who had been with it since the beginning, so sure!), **Savoy Truffle, Kevin-McKay, captuniv, catiechan, obsessedw/hpbutitsok, Atticus J. Finch, jilleah black, shadowarwen, ChildOfDarkness** (hahaha!  Somebody said I was dead?  Well, er…that's great. Lol.  No, I'm not dead, I assure you of that. And don't worry, muchos Harry angst I promise), **ginnyNharrysecretlove, klcypher **(sorry, it wouldn't work with the story), **Kerry94818, Rocky235, Lourdes, PassionFlower, Sparkle Tangerine **(new villain?  Hmmm…we'll see), **lost angel92, Velith, Lindiel Eryn, Firestar038, MistressCoCoLoVeR **(the Stensons and the Dursleys will both play roles in this story, so never fear!), **Fair-Faye-Kahlan, Victoria, Ariana Dumbledore **(yeah, I know.  Good catch!  My mistake.  I'm going to make some sorry excuse for it in the author's note, so you can check that out if you'd like! Lol), **jo0609, Kaat ShadowLover, Rhinemjr, lyss33, H.P.otter5, PhoenixPadfoot89, ckat44, AmajoS, Srialb, kamahpfan, TweedleDuh, Haras, fantagal **(lol, no, there's no slash in this story.  You've just got to understand that because of the events of last year and really all that they've been through together, Harry and Ron are very close friends, even closer than Ron is with his family, but no, they're not gay.  Ron's with Hermione and Harry's got his eye on Ginny, though he's in a bit of denial as always.), **Darak, Alex20, Wynjara, athenakitty, Molly Morrixon, Laterose, Senri, gatesy **(hey, thanks for dropping me a review!  I really do love them. I know, I wish Neutral would update!!), **Mornie Utulie, Mornie Alantie, David, **and **Rain Warrior**


	3. Discoveries

**Author's Note**:  Hey wonderful people! I'm sorry about the late update, but I really tried!  Ff.net was down yesterday, at least for me!  Look, I know a lot of people are very upset because I took away Harry's powers.  Please look at my review response to Alex20 for a bit of an explanation.  I hope you can all just trust that I know what I'm doing and that every move I make, including this one, is because I think it would be best for the story.  Besides, since this fic is taking place all in the summer, you wouldn't be able to see much of Harry's magic anyways, other than some perhaps necessary rule breaking.  Anyways, if the only reason you liked R.T. was because of Harry's powers, then you probably won't enjoy this story, though I'll be sad to see you go.  Otherwise, I hope you'll stick with this story and trust me.  

Now for my famous tales from real life.  I have this chemistry teacher who reminds me incredibly of Snape!  Today, he told this kid, David, that he checked to make sure David didn't have any siblings.  He said, "I guess when your parents saw how you turned out, they decided not to have anymore kids." Ouch.  Usually I think he's sort of funny, just because he reminds me so much of a certain Potions master, but today he was in an especially foul mood.  It was fun.  The other day, he told us we were all destined to be homeless beggars and that we should start working on making signs.  I thought it was so hilarious!  I wanted to turn a cardboard sign in for extra credit but I was slightly worried for my life.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

Thank you so much to Senri, who beta-ed last chapter and this one.  Getting rid of all my typos and helping me figure out all the technical junk like if transfiguration should be capitalized if not referring to the class (it's not, just for those who are wondering).  You rock, even though you kept this last chapter for way to friggin' long!  Oh well, people can blame you for this chapter's lateness I guess.  And "gah" is not your word.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Though he and Eloise had been writing each other during the summer, Harry had been a bit surprised that Eloise actually did invite him over.  It turned out that she was indeed going to plan out his and Neville's futures where their love lives were concerned.

A few days after going back to Hogwarts, Harry stumbled out of the fireplace into a small, but well-decorated living room.  It was very neat with framed family photographs on every flat surface and hung on all the walls.  Eloise was an only child, and it was obvious her parents adored her. 

"Harry!" she said with delight as she walked into the room.  

"Hey Eloise," Harry said cheerfully.  Behind him, the flames flared up green and Neville fell out of the fireplace onto the floor.  He grinned sheepishly as Harry helped him up.

"Don't worry, I do that every time," Harry assured him.  

The two chatted about their summers so far as they walked into the kitchen to grab fudge ice-pops.  Eloise's parents rose from the table and shook the hands of each boy as they made introductions.  

"So what are you three going to do today?" Mrs. Midgen asked excitedly.  Harry had the suspicion that he and Neville might have been the first to ever be invited to the house by Eloise.  

"We're having talks about their future love lives," Eloise said merrily.  "I'm helping them plan it out since Harry doesn't even know how he's going to tell his future wife that he fancies her!"

Harry's face grew hot.  "I do not fancy Ginny.  She's a _friend_," he insisted.  Everyone in the kitchen, including Eloise's parents, rolled their eyes.

"That's what I used to say about Nathalie.  That would be Mrs. Midgen," he clarified.  "Well, that was after awhile, of course, because when we met, we weren't even close to being friends."

"Why not?" Neville asked interestedly.  Mr. Midgen got up and grabbed a plate of brownies and setting them on the table.

"Well, if you two would like to hear the story, go ahead and take a seat and have some brownies," he said cheerfully.  

The boys eagerly sat down at the table and took a brownie, preparing for the story.  

"Well, we met in Hogwarts.  Nathalie was a Hufflepuff and I was a Ravenclaw.  We saw each other in the halls and were in a few classes together, but we never really noticed each other.  Then, one day, we were put in detention together.  We had to scrub the dungeons together."

"He was in detention for eating in class," Mrs. Midgen said with a grin, looking fondly at her husband.  "He was so proud, thinking he was so rebellious."

"And then she told me she was in for punching somebody in the face for insulting her friend.  Hufflepuffs are very loyal, you know.  Anyways, some time during that detention, I fell in love with her, though I didn't know it at the time."

"We became great friends," Mrs. Midgen picked back up. "We told each other practically everything."

"But then the ball happened.  And the most popular boy in school asked her to go with him."

"It was the greatest shock of my life.  I was quite unpopular and his invitation was such a surprise.  I was so excited and talked of nothing else the entire week before.  I didn't even notice until the last second that Orion, Mr. Midgen, hadn't asked anyone and wasn't planning anything.  In fact, he had looked down the entire week, but I hadn't really noticed.  And then, it was the night of the ball.  He told me I looked beautiful and then just went back to his common room to study.  And I went to the spot where I was supposed to meet my date.  I waited for half an hour before I realized he wasn't coming."

Harry and Neville gaped at her.  

"He stood you up?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes.  And I was devastated.  I went down to the ball and saw him with some popular girl, laughing about his joke of inviting me.  Of course, I ran to Orion for a shoulder to cry on, but he wouldn't let my night be ruined.  He ran up to his dorms and changed into his dress robes in a flash and insisted on being my date for the night.  I fell in love with him right there," she said wistfully.

"Let's get out of here before they get even sappier," Eloise whispered from behind them in a grossed-out tone, though Harry could see that she adored that story.

Neville and Harry rose, thanking them for the brownies and followed Eloise out to her backyard.   She handed them each a fudge ice-pop as the three of them sat down on her porch steps. 

"You don't know how many times I've heard that story.  It's so romantic," she said.  "But I must say my mum was so thrilled that you actually showed up when you asked me to the ball, Harry.  I think it was all too familiar to her."

"I can't believe what that bloke did to your mum," Neville said, shaking his head in disbelief. 

"Yeah, well people can be surprisingly mean sometimes," she said all too knowingly.  Harry looked at her sympathetically, remembering all the mean things Malfoy had said to her along with those bullying girls the night of the ball.  

"Well," Harry said, changing the subject, "I can see where you get your obsession with romance from."

Eloise grinned at him.  

"Speaking of which…" she said pulling out a small notepad and a quill.  "Time to plan some futures."

Harry groaned and Neville looked slightly afraid.  

"Alright, I'm just going to ask you two a few questions," she said in a professional tone, flipping open the notepad.  "Do you like warm weather or cold?"

"Ummm...warm I guess," said Harry warily. 

"Erm…probably cold, as long as I have the right clothes," answered Neville.

"If there was one place you could visit outside of England, where would it be?"

"Oh, definitely Italy," Neville answered confidently.  Eloise looked at him excitedly. 

"Oh me too!  I've always wanted to go there!" she said, writing something down.  "Good choice, Neville.  Okay, what about you, Harry?"

"I don't know.  I've never been outside of England so it would be pretty hard to narrow it down," Harry said with a shrug.  Eloise tapped her chin thoughtfully before writing something down with a nod.  

"Do you guys like being only children?" she asked.  Both boys looked at her oddly, wondering if she was planning on making siblings appear for them in the future.  "Well?" she asked.

"I guess not.  I always thought it would be nice to be in the family like the Weasleys," Harry said shyly, not ever have admitted that before.  

"Yeah, same here, I guess," said Neville thoughtfully, "but not with as many siblings as the Weasleys.  More like one or two others."

"Okay, I think I'm about done, but Neville, have you thought of your wife yet?" she asked seriously.

Neville blushed and Harry chuckled.  "Minor detail," Harry commented with amusement, licking the last of his ice-pop off the stick. 

"Oh, well, no…not really," Neville said in an odd tone.  

Harry looked at him curiously.  Eloise grinned.

"Oh, yes you have, I can tell!  Oh, who is it, Neville?" she asked eagerly.  Neville blushed furiously.

"Really, I haven't thought of anyone.  I don't know yet."  He was nearly as bad of a liar as Harry was.

"Alright, alright, it can be your secret for now," Eloise said in surrender.  

"How about Cindy Valentina?" Harry suggested.  The name belonged to a famous witch model, who often had photos in the same magazines that spread Harry's private life out for the whole world to see.  

Neville laughed.  "Yeah, put her down as my wife, Eloise.  We're perfect for each other," he joked.  Eloise chuckled and wrote the name down.

"Hey, you never know, Nev.  I mean, I used to think Roger Davies was a fantasy, but we've been writing each other a lot this summer."

"Do you think he fancies you?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure.  These sorts of things are harder to tell when you're involved in them," she said wisely, finishing her writing. "Done," she announced proudly, handing each of them the outline of their futures.  

"You named our kids?" Harry asked in amusement.  

Eloise nodded proudly.  

"And I have one named Eloise?" he asked.

"Yes.  It's in honor of me, since I'm the one that planned your future.  I'll also be your wedding planner, just like my mum, and one of the bridesmaids, as you can see there.  Your other kids are rather close in age, but Eloise is a bit younger.  She's the cute one.  I've coordinated it so Neville's youngest son will be born around the same time so they can be friends.  You can also work with Ron and Hermione to coordinate it," she said matter-of-factly.  "I'll make sure to have a kid around the same time as well with Roger."

Harry and Neville stared at her, slightly worried for their friend's sanity.  

"Wait, your mum's a wedding planner?" Harry asked.

Eloise nodded.

"That explains so much."

"I'm having a summer house in Ireland?" Neville asked as he looked over the outline.

"Yup, they have some very exotic plants at certain spots there, if you know where to look, and since you like Herbology so much, I thought it would be a nice get-away," she explained.

"Wedding at a church during the winter while it's snowing outside.  Honeymoon in Italy.  Eloise as wedding planner and bridesmaid or maid of honor, Harry as groomsman or best man.  Three kids; a girl and two boys, named Emily, Nicholas, and Vernon," Neville read off.

"Ugh, change the name of your last boy.  I'm not good with the name Vernon," Harry said in disgust.  

"How about Connor?" Eloise suggested.

"Much better," Harry said in relief as Eloise made the change before handing it back to Neville.

"So, what do you think?" she asked.

Neville and Harry reluctantly nodded in approval, not wanting to give Eloise too much encouragement in fear of what she would try to plan next.  

"Except Ginny and I are…"

"Just friends," Eloise and Neville finished for him with a roll of the eyes.  

"Sure, Harry," Eloise said sarcastically.

"Friends with benefits," Neville quipped.  Harry made an indignant face.

"Neville!" he scolded as Eloise cracked up.  

"You are in such bad denial," Neville said sympathetically.  

"Sorry, Harry, but friends don't look at each other like you two do," Eloise said with a shrug.  "Once you've figured out that you fancy her we'll work on marriage proposals since I don't think it's easy to fit '_but we're just friends_' into a decent one."

Harry glared at her but the other two just laughed.

*

"Are you sure, Harry?" Ginny asked warily as Harry handed her his Firebolt.  The three Weasley boys were already flying around, tossing apples to each other.  

"Of course," he said taking her Cleansweep 5.  "You'll do fine."

Ginny smiled excitedly and straddled the Firebolt before kicking off into the air.  Harry followed right after.  

"Wow, it's so wonderful.  It moves so fluidly," she said in awe, taking a few spins on the broom.  

Harry grinned at Ginny's obvious delight.  She flew in circles around Harry, horizontal at first, and then vertical ones.  

"Hey Gin," George called from above, "check out how well it dives!"  He said in admiration of the wonderful broom.  He tossed an apple down and Ginny made a dive for it.  

As she got closer and closer to the ground, Harry really hoped she'd pull up soon, or figure out that the broom was a lot harder to pull up out of a dive than it was to go into one.  It was characteristic of the model, something that had supposedly been fixed in the Lightningstrike, but he wasn't sure if Ginny knew that. 

Apparently she didn't.  She tried to pull out of the dive at the last second, after just catching the apple, but didn't pull up hard enough.  The impact was slowed, but the broom collided with the ground, sending Ginny flying onto her back.  

Harry immediately dove down and dismounted quickly, racing over to Ginny, who sat up with a groan.  

"Ginny!  Are you alright?" he asked worriedly, kneeling down beside her.  She ignored the question and looked past him. She covered her mouth with a hand and her face grew bright red.  

"Your broom," she whispered in horror.  Harry looked around to see Fred, George and Ron with their mouths hung open, holding the Firebolt, which had snapped in half.  Harry winced at the sight, but shrugged it off, turning back to Ginny.  

"Don't worry about it.  Now are you alright?"

"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry.  I'm such a klutz," she said, clearly mortified.

Something about the way she looked made Harry smile.  She had a streak of mud across the side of her forehead and she looked so worried.  With a lopsided grin, he wiped away the mud with his sleeve.  

"Hey, the ground's a pretty big thing.  It's really just asking you to hit it," he said with a shrug.  Ginny blinked in surprise and looked into his eyes.  Somehow, she couldn't help from smiling either.  The two chuckled softly.  "Now, really, are you hurt?"

"Umm…I think I'm fine," she said.  Harry helped her to her feet, but as she put her weight on her right foot, she yelped.  "Okay, so the ankle's not great," she said with a wince.  

"Okay, well, once we get back over this hill, we can get you on a broom, but for now, I'll have to give you a piggy-back ride," he said.  Ginny bit her bottom lip and shook her head with a smile.

"You know, I really think you're mad Harry," she said as she climbed onto Harry's back.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and he hooked his arms under her legs, hoisting her up.  He couldn't comfortably hold Ginny's broom, so he decided just to carry her all the way back.  Once over the hill, the Burrow wasn't far at all. 

He looked back at the three Weasley boys who were looking at him as if he had gone insane.  

"Harry, your broom is in two pieces," George said slowly holding up said parts.  

"The broom you prize with your life," Fred clarified. 

"You know, the one that when we were riding it, you said you'd kill us if we scratched it," Ron said.

"I was just kidding.  It was just an accident," he said nonchalantly.  "Besides, I think Sirius might have an old one lying around somewhere.  It would be from the 70s.  A classic," he said cheerily.  "Well, we're heading back to see about Ginny's ankle.  See you guys later."

He began walking up the hill, trying to get Ginny to stop feeling bad by cracking jokes.  

Fred, George, and Ron watched them go, still slightly stunned.  

"Okay, I really thought this big brother thing would be more difficult.  Aren't we supposed to be beating off bastard blokes from Ginny?" Fred said, shaking his head.  

"How is Harry not upset about his Firebolt?" Ron asked incredulously. "Sirius told Harry he wouldn't replace it if Harry broke it.  He made that clear to try to get Harry to stop doing risky tricks on it.  Harry loves that broom!"

"Love will make you do some crazy things.  Obviously, he's fallen for our baby sister," George said.  "They grow up so fast," he said with a fake sob into Fred's shoulder, who patted him on the head with exaggerated reassurance.

"He sure makes the protective older brother bit a lot easier," Fred said.  

"Well, I'd like to take credit for all this, thank you," Ron said haughtily. "I did choose him as my friend after all.  I must have subconsciously had Ginny's future boyfriend potential in mind."

He was then pelted with apples.  

"You know, I should really just employ you as my servant.  Then you can carry me around to all my classes," Ginny said, relishing the warmth of Harry's body.

"Yeah, what's in it for me?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Why, the very honor of being my man-slave, of course!" she said, hoping that didn't sound too awkward.  Harry laughed.

"Sure, but then Hermione would set up an organization for the welfare of…well…me, and you'd be her prime target," he said with a great sigh.

"Aw bugger, it's too frightening being on Hermione's bad side.  I guess it won't work out then.  I'm so sorry you're going to have to be deprived of that honor."

"I'll somehow survive, probably with a lot of therapy," he said dramatically.  They both chuckled.  

"Harry, I'm really sorry about your broom," Ginny said seriously.  "It was really stupid of me to try that dive."

"Don't worry about it.  I forgot to tell you that it's hard to pull out of one.  I'm just glad you didn't get hurt worse."

"I'll pay for it.  Really, I will.  Just give me a little time and…." she started.

"Don't be ridiculous.  If I went around paying for everything I damaged, I'd be in big trouble.  During Christmas hols, when I was at the Stensons, Kota asked me to put  bottle of nail polish remover away for her but I dropped it and it ate a hole through her carpet.  I also broke one of her CDs," he said.  He actually had bought Kota a new CD to replace it, but figured that Ginny didn't need to know that.  "Oh, and the best was when I was sitting on her staircase and I grabbed onto one of the little wood poles in her railing and it came out in my hand.  We sort of just wedged it back in there, but if you rattle the banister, it falls out."

"Really?" she asked, sounding a bit more relieved.

"Really," he said with a smile.  "I'm glad to know I have a follower of my klutzy ways."

Ginny found herself discretely smelling Harry's hair.  She felt a little bizarre doing it, but her face was so close to it and it smelled so wonderful.  She couldn't identify it, but knew that the smell was distinctly Harry's, which was what made it even more amazing.

"Hey Gin?  Do you know what you want to do after Hogwarts?" Harry asked curiously, hoping to maybe get some ideas.  Ginny quickly pulled her nose out of Harry's dark locks as he turned his head to look at her.

"Well, I've always wanted to try everything," she said with a grin.

"Oh, well that'll be easy then," Harry chuckled.

"What I mean is that I don't want to do something that I start with right out of school and do until I retire.  It's great for some people, but I've always wanted to be one of those old folks who can always tell stories about my various jobs: the worst ones, the best ones, the kookiest ones," she said with a dreamy grin that could only make Harry smile as well.

"Such as?" Harry prompted.

"Well, you can't tell anyone, especially my mum, but I've always wanted to work as…" she put her mouth near his ears and in a conspiring whisper said, "…a bartender."

"A bartender?" Harry asked with a laugh.

"Oh yeah.  In some small pub, where you get your crazy regulars and rowdy crowds after Quidditch games.  And I'd be able to mix any drink with ease and listen to everyone's problems and dish out my wise advice that people will follow and help them with their problems.  Bartenders can change lives, Harry."

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the mental picture of him telling McGonagall and Dumbledore that the Boy Who Lived's great aspiration was to become a bartender.   

Harry carried Ginny all the way to the Burrow.  Mrs. Weasley saw them come up and after being assured that Ginny was alright, she went about healing her daughter's ankle while sneaking looks at Harry, who in turn kept sneaking glances at Ginny.

That night after dinner, she couldn't help but give him an extra big slice of the homemade pie she had made for desert, imagining little children with bright green eyes and red hair.

*

It was nearly midnight at the Burrow, and the twins had just finished going over some financials for their shop.  Yawning, they trekked downstairs for a cup of tea before going to sleep.  

When they reached the bottom floor, however, the kitchen door was closed and light shone through the crack underneath.  Apparently, they weren't the only ones up for a late night cup of tea.

They were about to open the door, but froze when they heard their parents conversing in serious tones inside.  They pressed their ears to the door as they heard Harry's name mentioned. 

"… believe that that horrid man hit him in the station!  How could someone do that to a child?  Especially one they've looked after for so long!  They should have been like Harry's parents, but they were just awful to him!  And Harry's such a dear, it just makes me want to strangle that man," Mrs. Weasley huffed.  There was a lot of shuffling noises and the twins suspected that the woman was pacing the room, rearranging small things as she often did when she was angry.  

"I've been meaning to tell you something about that, Molly," Mr. Weasley said with a sad sigh. "It seems that Harry hasn't really let on to everything about his relatives."

Fred and George exchanged a look.  This didn't sound good.

"Remember right after Harry died, I went to his house?" their dad continued.  "Well, I found out some really disturbing things.  Harry's aunt and uncle were there and they didn't even care that he had died."

"What?  Oh, those awful people!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked.  Mr. Weasley quickly shushed her.  

"Shh, Molly, the kids can never hear about this alright?  I think Ron knows a bit about it, but just in case, it would be best not to mention much of this to him either" he said seriously.  

The twins looked at each other with slightly guilty looks, trying to silently ask each other if they should leave.  

"But they already know, probably better than us, that Harry didn't get along with his relatives," their mum said confusedly.

"It was much worse than we could have ever imagined." 

Fred and George knew they couldn't leave now.

"What do you mean?"

"Molly, when the boys picked Harry up that summer, that was one of the only summers he's had an actual room.  Until he got his Hogwarts letter, they kept him locked in this cupboard under the stairs.  And they put him back in there over Christmas and when he went back during the attack at Hogwarts."

"They did WHAT?" Molly screamed.  Arthur shushed her again.  Fred and George exchanged an angry look.  

"There's more.  Harry…Harry was abused, Molly, physically abused, especially this last summer.  That's why he was at the Stensons.  Rick said they found bruises all over him, and handshaped marks on his neck.  And not just recent ones, old ones as well, like it had been going on for awhile," Mr. Weasley said sadly.  

He was met with stunned a silence.  Fred and George were frozen in horrified shock.

"That's what the tension between the Stensons and Harry's uncle was all about when the Stensons took Harry over Christmas.  But, from what Rick told me, the Dursleys found out that Harry was staying with them and showed up at their house and put a gun, that's a Muggle thing for killing people, to his head and took him from the house.  Somehow the Muggle law-enforcement got mixed up and wouldn't let the Stensons near Harry.  I talked with Severus and Albus and apparently, over that time Harry's uncle beat him up so badly, he broke his ribs and was thrown through a glass table.  Severus was the first one to find out.  Thank Merlin that he noticed something because Harry went days without going to the Hospital Wing.  Severus wouldn't say much, but he healed Harry up all right.  Apparently this stuff has been going to a lesser degree since Harry was a kid."

"Oh no.  No, no, no," Mrs. Weasley whispered, clearly upset. "Not Harry.  Not him."

Mr. Weasley took a deep breath and continued.  "And you know how Harry was sent home during the attack on Hogwarts?  Well his uncle lost his job and very nearly killed Harry.  He stabbed him in the stomach.  Luckily Severus showed up and stopped Dursley from doing any more damage, and brought Harry back to Hogwarts.  He had lost so much blood, he almost didn't make it."

Mrs. Weasley began to get hysterical, wanting to go over to the Lighthouse that minute to see Harry.

"Molly, please, you'll wake the kids.  And don't make a big deal about this to Harry.  You don't understand how devastated he was to find out that I knew and was going to tell you."

"But why?" she cried. "Why didn't he tell us?  Why did he keep this all to himself?  Didn't he trust us?"

"Harry thinks of our family as his, but I don't think he trusts anyone completely.  How could he after being treated like he has all his life?  I'm surprised he's turned out as good as he has, but he's got to have some issues about this that he might not even realize himself," Mr. Weasley said in a mixture of sadness and anger.

"Oh gods, Ron said that Harry believed that nobody would care if he died, that's why he took that illness from Rick Stenson.  No wonder he would think that if his own family treated him like that.  Arthur, let's adopt him.  We can show him what a family is really like and…" 

"Molly, Harry has Sirius now.  He needs to be with his godfather.  Besides, the Dursleys can't hurt him anymore."

"Oh Arthur, how could anyone do this?  Why didn't we notice?"

"Harry must have been good at hiding it.  We weren't the only ones who couldn't see it.  When that boy wants to keep a secret, he does.  He kept the fact that he was dying from us for months.  Everyone's just going to have to be on the lookout to make sure he doesn't continue doing so."

"Maybe we should have a talk with him," Mrs. Weasley suggested tearfully. 

"It's not our place, Molly.  Sirius is his godfather and I'm sure he's been giving Harry enough talks to last him a lifetime.  Plus, Remus is always over there and he and Harry were pretty close when Remus was a professor.  I'm sure he's been working on it as well.  We don't want Harry to feel like he has nowhere to go without a break from adults lecturing him," Mr. Weasley said practically.

"I don't know, Arthur.  Sirius is a bit like a giant kid sometimes…."

The two began to gently argue over their roles in Harry's life as Fred and George snuck away.  

Neither could think of anything to say.  Both were stunned and furious at the same time.  Harry was like their little brother and to think of his own family hurting him was too much.  

The two walked straight past their room and continued up the stairs, as if reading each other's mind.  They marched straight up to the top floor and into Ron's room.  Fred shook him awake.

"Mmm?" Ron moaned sleepily.  "Whassamatta?" he asked tiredly as he rubbed his eyes.  

"Ron, sit up, we have something important to talk to you about," George said, sitting on the edge of Ron's bed.  The younger redhead yawned and obeyed.  

"What time is it?" he asked, slightly more awake.

"Late.  Ron, we just overheard Mum and Dad talking about Harry," Fred said seriously.

"What about?" Ron asked with furrowed eyebrows, trying to wake up.

"About Harry's home life.  What do you know about it?" George asked bluntly.

Ron's eyes widened and he blinked in surprise.  

"He asked me not to tell," he said firmly.  "How did Mum and Dad find out?"

"Ron, we already know everything.  The Dursleys even admitted it to Dad and he talked with the Stensons and Snape and Dumbledore and stuff," said Fred.

"Snape?  How's he involved?" Ron asked confusedly.

Fred and George related exactly what they had heard down in the kitchen.  Ron was horrified to learn the extent of what Harry had gone through.  He figured that it no longer mattered if he told the twins about what had happened the day he found Harry's scars.  Out of courtesy to Harry, he didn't mention his friend's minor breakdown, just some of the contents of it.  

"And he hasn't talked about it since?" George asked worriedly.

"No, and he hates it when people even get near the subject.  I think he's ashamed," Ron said sadly.  "Speaking of which, don't tell Ginny about this.  Harry would be mortified."

Fred stood up angrily and began to pace the room.  "Those bastards!  Those—those assholes!  How could they do this to Harry?  I-I-I mean…Harry!  Innocent, selfless Harry!  How could he have even stood a chance against that whale of an uncle of his?  And dad said they've been treating him rotten since he was a little kid!"

"Oh Merlin, Fred, remember when we picked up Harry in dad's car, when we went to get his trunk from the cupboard under the stairs, remember it was on top of that little ratty cot?  You don't reckon that was Harry's bed, do you?  It looked like it was going to fall apart!" George said heatedly.  

"Not to mention the fact that he was locked in his room being starved," Ron said bitterly.  "Who knows what they've been doing to him.  When he came back from winter break on the train, he got sick from whatever his uncle had done to him.  He had a bruise on his face, which his uncle must've given him.  I can't believe Snape of all people was the first to figure it out!  No wonder Harry was defending him.  I just can't believe he helped Harry!  It must've been really bad for Snape to help him.  And he didn't even tell…."

"Boys?  What are you all doing up?" 

Ron and the twins looked to the door to find their mother standing there in surprise.  Her eyes were red and puffy as if she'd been crying.  

"Mum, we heard what you and dad were talking about in the kitchen," Fred admitted sadly.  Mrs. Weasley closed her eyes for several seconds before entering the room and closing the door behind her.  She went over and sat on Ron's bed, gesturing her three boys to come and pulled them all into a hug.  She kissed Ron's head as she stroked Fred's hair. 

"Oh boys.  My boys," she muttered as she hugged them all.  

"Mum, how could this happen?  I don't understand how somebody could do this," George said.

Mrs. Weasley smiled sadly.  "Oh boys, I know sometimes it doesn't seem it, but we have so much to be thankful for.  Sometimes when you're so blessed, it's hard to imagine what it's like for those who don't have what you have.  I'm so thankful that all my children have grown up in a loving family, where you never had to be afraid of anything more than having your teddy bear turned into a giant spider by your siblings." 

The three chuckled softly.  

"I don't think I tell you how much I love you often enough," Mrs. Weasley said tearfully.

"Mum, you tell us a thousand times a day," Ron said reassuringly.  

"Yeah, we've never doubted it for a second," Fred added.  

"Well, I've been rather hard on you all about your grades and the trouble you get into at school and when I compare you to your other siblings, I don't mean I love any of you more or less," she said hugging them to her again.  "I'm so proud of all of you and I love you all so much."

"We know, Mum.  We love you too," George said, patting her hand.  

"And you know that you can always come to me or your dad about anything, right?  And you know that we would never hurt you, ever, no matter how angry we got," she said with a small sob.  

"Of course we know that," Ron said, hugging his mother around the neck.  "Don't cry, Mum."

Mrs. Weasley sniffed and wiped away some tears with a handkerchief.  "It's just so sad knowing that Harry wasn't able to have a family like ours.  He must have been terrified of his relatives and they were all he had!  When Harry died, Remus said that when Sirius had told Harry he loved him, it was the first time anyone had said that to him in his entire life.  Can you imagine that?  We have so much love in this family when some people have none, I sometimes think I take it for granted."

"I think we sort of do too," said Fred.  The other two reluctantly nodded in consent.

"I guess in a way, we're sort of spoiled, aren't we?" Ron said ironically.

Mrs. Weasley chuckled and ruffled his hair lovingly.  "Yes, I suppose you are in some ways.  In the best ways."

"Mum, isn't there something we can do?" George asked concernedly.

"I'm not sure myself what to do, love.  For now, don't tell Harry you know, but keep an eye out for him.  I know he adores his godfather, but Sirius has no experience raising kids.  I'm not sure how he's addressing this situation and what kind of talks he's given Harry about it, so just try to look out for anything off with Harry.  With the slim chance that Sirius hasn't been doing anything about it, all this stuff has to catch up with Harry at some point.  And if that happens, I don't care what anyone says, I'm stepping in.  So I want you to tell me if you notice anything, all right?"

The three immediately agreed.

"And don't tell Ginny.  I think Harry has a little crush on her and I'm sure he wouldn't like her knowing," she said with a smile.

The boys chuckled at the fact that everyone seemed to know about Harry's and Ginny's mutual crushes except for them.  

"What's going to happen with Harry's uncle?  I mean, he should be shoved in Azkaban for what he's done," Fred said angrily.

"Well, he's in Muggle prison right now, isn't he?  Remember, he was taken away at the train station and they were going to contact the Stensons who could tell them everything.  It's not Azkaban, but it's something and it would be too difficult for the wizarding law enforcement to interfere at this point.  We'll just have to trust that he'll get what he deserves in the end," Mrs. Weasley said with a sigh.  

"But it's so unfair!  Why did Harry have to go through all of that?  It should have been somebody who deserved it," Ron said angrily.  

"Do you really think anyone deserves that, Ron?" his mum asked gently.  

"Well, yeah, I mean, at least more so than Harry.  Like You-Know-Who for instance, or Malfoy and his little Slytherin followers, or somebody else who's made our lives miserable.  Or how about Harry's uncle?  He should have to go through what he made Harry go through!" Ron argued.  

"As much as I'd like to get my hands on Vernon Dursley myself," Mrs. Weasley spat the name, "you shouldn't wish that on anyone.  After all, that's the kind of thing that teaches people to behave badly.  There are people like Harry, who are affected in different ways, but there are others who are affected differently.  You-Know-Who apparently had an awful childhood and it turned him into what he became.  You should try your best not to judge people, because you never know what made them become the person they are."  

"I don't think that's an excuse for the way some people act, I don't care what happened to them before, it's no excuse for being a child abuser or for killing innocent people," Fred said bitterly.  

"Of course it isn't.  Some things are unforgivable.  But others, like the Malfoy boy and his friends; maybe they are just nasty little bullies, but on the other hand, you only know what you've seen of them," Mrs. Weasley preached.  "And you saw what happened between the Malfoy boy and his father."

"Oh right, Malfoy's led a very difficult life I'm sure," Ron said sarcastically.  "He's only got all the money in the world.  He could just buy a new father if he doesn't get on well with his current one."

Mrs. Weasley sighed.  "Oh Ron, one day you'll figure out how to apply what you believe in to the areas where you're emotionally involved.  Just think about all we've talked about tonight and compare that to your opinion about the Malfoy boy," she said with a fond smile, getting out of the bed and tucking Ron in.  She kissed him on the forehead and left to walk the twins back to their room.  

Ron thought about what his mum had said, but knew that his opinion of Draco Malfoy hadn't changed.  Sure the blonde had chickened out on Crucioing Harry, and Ron was grateful for that, but he couldn't forget all the awful things Malfoy had said and done to him in the past.  Whatever Malfoy's home life was like, it was no excuse for the bully he was.  And Ron was certain the blonde would never change.

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A/N:  Just to re-emphasize the point, this entire fic will take place during Harry's summer holidays.  Well, guess what, next chapter, we might get some starting of plot!  GASP!  I love to see so many people back from Recnac and really excited to see all the new ones.  Anywho, please review.  They inspire me!  (As well as feed my review addiction.) 

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**Siri Kat: **Hey!  Glad to have you back.  The concealing charms are a pride thing.  Most still don't really know the extent of the abuse and Harry doesn't want them to get all awkward each time they see his back.  This will be discussed later in the fic.  No, thank  in the fic.  No, thank YOU for being glad about Harry not having his powers.  Mostly I've just been yelled at for the change, even though it really was necessary, but you're the only person who has thanked me for it.  You really brightened my day!  Don't worry, I'll keep up with the updates, and eventually, I hope to get it back to once a week, probably when the end of the school year starts rolling around. 

**Texasjeanette: **Actually, the reason Harry's powers were getting so strong was basically because his magical energy was freaking out trying to get rid of the cancer.  Now it doesn't have to fight the cancer, so it's back to normal. But Harry's still a strong wizard, just no super duper powers anymore, sorry!  But you must trust it was for the good of the fic!  If you like angst, though, you're in for a fun ride. 

**Thundering Lights: **Nice to have you back!  I know, I just had to make one of the disgusting mystery hangover cures that contain vile things you don't even want to think about.  Hmm…why do you have that feeling?  Probably because you're onto something.  Good job, Sherlock!  Ooh, SATs, what fun!!  Or sadistic torture device, either one really.  

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Hey, it's like a psychic connection!  Lol.  Don't worry, though I have many light, fluffy goodness scenes throughout, I guarantee much angst and drama.  This story will probably be more angsty than Recnac as it's going to deal a lot with emotional repercussions of previous events, and upcoming events.  Yeah, the Stensons will be back, but Kota and George are not yet officially dating.  I'm glad you liked the song, yes I did make it up.  It was quite fun, I must say!  Harry didn't get pissed mostly because he's not too keen on the idea of it.  After all, look at his uncle.  Harry wasn't brought up by positive role models, obviously, but at least he can look at them and decide how he doesn't want to turn out.  That doesn't mean he'll never get drunk in his life, but for now, he's steering clear of alcohol.  I've not yet finished with the Dursleys, but that's all I can really say about the matter right now.  I'm so glad that you're glad he's rid of his super powers, most are disappointed.  Lol, sorry, but there will be quite of bit H/Gness to endure, but don't worry, I'll try not to get too mushy.  

**Foxfur **Actually, Sirius discretely removed the ears from Vernon before he was taken into custody, so the police only thought he was insane when he was going on about his donkey ears.  Harry could only go to the store because Fred and George were keeping an eye on him, as well as all the adult wizards coming in and out.  Notice he had to wait for Sirius and Remus before he could actually go around the streets.  They followed him.  Kota's fire is hooked up to the Floo network, or at least will be, but she's uneasy enough with the whole Portkey thing, there's no way in hell you'd get her to step into a fire.  Besides, I'm not sure if Muggles could actually travel by Floo.  Either way, the Floo to her fireplace is really only if Harry wants to come and visit her.  

**Athenakitty: **yeah, nobody could wait for the WWW shop to open.  You don't want to know what was in the remedy, nobody really does, trust that.  Harry's won't be growing more than what they were naturally supposed to, but he's only 15, he's got time to develop them.  He won't have to retake his OWLs because no one took the second week, all having the pretty valid excuse of witnessing Harry's death, and being attacked.  Harry has the ultimate excuse, since he was, in fact, dead during them, or near dead anyways.  Teachers are just accepting students or rejecting them from their advanced classes based on their work in the class from the previous year.  That includes Harry's professors. Good questions! 

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Sounds like a plan, but I don't think I'll get too random.  A lot of times, if things seem a bit random, they actually do have a purpose.  But if I'm getting way too out there, give me a heads up.  Well, you'll have to see about Snape and Draco for yourself, and don't worry, you'll find out about them soon.  I'm glad you didn't find me taking away Harry's powers disappointing then, because that's what I was referring to.  Don't worry, 2 weeks is the maximum between updates.    

**Alex20: **lol, he's not crippled, he's back to normal.  Yes, he's going to get sick sometimes, but it's not going to be a constant.  It's up to the people who love him to make him realize he's wonderful all by himself, without being the savior of the world and having super powers.  Harry needs to learn that people like him for him, not because he can be a tool to put to battle.  Plus, Harry has the potential of being smart like Hermione, he just has to work harder for it than he did last year.  Besides being a bit on the thin side from not eating a lot last year, he's in good shape.  He plays Quidditch on a regular basis and he's always been a fast runner.  And it's not like Ron is Rambo or anything.  Harry has to now be strong on his own, without the crutch of super powers.  Besides, he's a fifteen-year-old boy, not a warrior.  A lot of people need to realize that, including Harry himself.  **__**

Also thanks to:  **Mythology, gaul1, Talix, Jennifer, SiriusWolf, cintishortstop, jo0609, Lyinlothana, Serpent of Light **(oh, never you fear, Sev will play a definite part in this story and Remus will be there quite often.  Yes, us teenagers are a bit loony at times aren't we?  Lol), **Romm, mickeymoose, SillyGillie **(awesome username! Glad you like it so far!), **Musicstarlover, A-Brighter-Dawn, Shawn Pickett **(yes, the Dursleys aren't quite done with yet.  You'll find out about Draco next chapter, and Sev will swoop in, robes billowing menacingly to this fic. Lol), **Anilia Hawkeye **(Well, I know you hate reviewing, but it means so much to me!  Even just a few words of encouragement or suggestions works!), **Agnes **(yay! An angst lover, good.  I think you'll like this story then.), **Lindiel Eryn **(Sirius has a ways to go before realizing Harry's a lot different from James.  Guess you'll have to wait and see how that goes!), **Velith **(Cho won't be in this fic, it takes place only during the summer and so they won't see her, though there might be a few jokes about her.  I'm not quite finished with the Dursleys yet.), **Darak **(I know, but trust me, it's necessary for the story), **Pennypacker, water drifter, fantagal, shadowarwen, Rocky235, Rhinemjr **(wow, thanks for the wonderful compliment!), **Rubberduckie713** (love the penname! I'm so glad you found and liked my story!  I'll try to make you cry just as much. Lol), **ChildofDarkness, Magnolia Lane, Von **(No, Harry won't get his super-powers back, but he's still a strong wizard.  He just needs to find his own strengths.), **Rhiain, Earthmom, Nankinmai, Eternally*Mine **(of course that's okay!  Actually, a lot of times I do put really subtle things in my fics that only those who try to look deeper into things can actually see.  The Dursleys are not all the way gone yet.  Good picking up on the Harry getting drunk with the Vernon connection.  I want to go there too!), **obsessedw/hpbutitsok, SicTransitGoria.gloryFades **(Terry! Wow, didn't recognize the penname!  Lol Flower Potter!  Lol, well, hopefully I'll talk to you v. soon and I'm sorry about them deleting your fic.  Ff.net has some crazies on it I'm sure!), **Luna Chi Lupin Sparrow, lyss33, Zaptor **(don't worry, I read all my reviews), **tessa **(no, not a genuine Brit, but I read a lot of British books and I've done a lot of looking into the slang to make it more realistic.  Yes, I am a dork.  But I'm going to London this summer!  I'll be able to put it all to some use!), **angel74, Threetoedsloth, crazedbrat28, ckat44, Wynjara, Biggi, LadyAbbeyBartlet **(Harry is a strong wizard.  He's back to his normal self now, but I never said that was at the same level as everyone else.  But now it's just him, no cancer-induced superpowers.  Don't worry!  The H/G romance is still there, but there's still the slight problem of denial in the way.  I'm glad you like the Brit slang.  I try.  I'll try to read your fic if I can, but I've promised a lot of people to read theirs as well, and I'm just so busy!  But I'll definitely try.), **HG/HrRFan4ever, EriEka127, Crystal113, captinuv **(I thought of that too, but it wouldn't work with the story.  Besides, Harry's powers were strong because they were freaking out, trying to rid his body of cancer.  Now that the cancer's gone, his powers aren't freaking out anymore and are back to normal.), **kneh13, katisha, Savoy Truffle, Ganymade **(lol, I can't answer that!  You'll have to read on and find out!), **Helen, Phoenix Marauder, H.Potter5, Fair-Faye-Kahlan **(lol, well, Alan Rickman can take the brunt of all your angst.  I don't think he's ugly!  Definitely not a sex god, but not bad considering what he could have looked like.  I think he plays Snape wonderfully. I really thought the twins would be better looking.  *Sigh* Anyways, I hope you continue to like!), **David, charmed1, Avvy Kavvy, **and **Bosson12787.__**


	4. The Unexpected

**Author's Note**:  Woo hoo!  Spring break!  Happy Easter to those who celebrate!  Otherwise, just Happy Spring Break!  I'm posting this early since I'm leaving for a road trip tomorrow morning.  Of course, I'll be reading Hamlet the whole time, but hey, that's what you get for AP Lit.  On my chem lab the other day, my table got a 186% error.  Ummm…oops?  I didn't even know that was possible!  Needless to say, we had to do it over.  I'm seeing Ella Enchanted tomorrow!  I really recommend that book!  Probably mostly to the female population, since it's a Cinderella story, but majorly cool.  Anyways, thank you so much to all of you who are reviewing the fic so far.  You guys all rock my world!  Oh, and feel better Terry!!  Now, on with the story!! 

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Harry walked downstairs as he heard a familiar voice that sounded bizarre to hear during the summer, even if he had expected it.

He pushed open the kitchen door to find his godfather sitting across from the Hogwart's potion master, both trying to be civil, but obviously feeling quite awkward.  Snape had come to give Harry a checkup.  Dumbledore had asked the Potion's master to check up on Harry's health every two weeks throughout the summer since Madam Pomfrey was in need of a real vacation.  Snape agreed partially because he knew he had to keep open some line of contact if he wanted Harry and Draco to give each other a chance as friends.  Besides, Snape was the one who had discovered the potion to bring him back in the first place and because of all his research, was the most familiar with Harry's condition.   

Sirius knew of all the stuff that Snape had done for Harry the past year and was therefore desperately trying to lay aside all his dislike for his childhood enemy and be civil.  Snape was thankfully attempting to do the same.  Unfortunately, their dislike for one another was only lessened by the previous year's ordeals, rather than completely diminished, leaving a very uncomfortable air in the kitchen.  Harry spoke up to break the tension.

"Hi, Professor," Harry said.  Both adults looked up at him with relief written on their expressions.

"Good afternoon, Harry," Snape said formally.  Harry smiled at the use of his given name.  "Take a seat facing me."

Harry sat down in the kitchen chair, turning it to face the Potions master.  Snape stood and performed a few health-checking spells, asking questions in between.

"Have you been eating regular meals?"

"Yes.  Sirius has been practically force-feeding me," he said with a playful glare at his godfather. 

"Hey, you've got to put on some more weight, Harry," Sirius said sternly.  "You lost a lot when you were sick."

"Any trouble sleeping or waking?"

"Nope."

"Have you gotten sick at all?"

"No."

"Take a deep breath, hold it for ten seconds and then exhale," Snape instructed.  Harry followed orders while Snape held his wand in front of the Gryffindor's chest.  "Any dizziness?"

"Nope."

"All right.  You seem to be in good health," he announced, pulling out a syringe.  "I'm going to draw some blood so I can check over it just to make sure there's nothing we're missing, okay?"

Harry nodded and rolled up his sleeve, laying his arm on the table, wrist up.  Sirius couldn't watch and went to get Harry a cup of tea.  

"Professor, how's Draco?" he asked as Snape finished drawing his blood.  

"Not so well," he said bluntly.  

Harry paused thoughtfully.

"I don't know how well it would go over, but do you think I should give it a try?  Maybe I could help since I can sort of relate to his situation, you know?" he suggested.   "Unless you think I'd upset him more.  Maybe that was a bad idea," he said quickly.  

"No, if you want to do it, that's a good idea.  You could try talking to him," Snape said anxiously, though not showing it.  He had been trying to get Draco to open up since his father had disowned him, but it was clear that he wasn't what the young Slytherin needed at the moment.  He still held onto the belief that a friendship with _Harry _was what the blonde needed; Draco just didn't know it yet.

"I could come now, if you'd like," Harry offered.  

Snape nodded in assent. 

"Wait, you're going where?" Sirius asked from the counter. 

"To my manor," Snape answered for Harry.  Sirius tried to hide the horror he felt at the idea. 

"Er...I don't think that's such a good idea," he said awkwardly.

"Come on, Padfoot.  I'll be back for dinner.  Besides, I need to help Draco.  You remember what he did for me, right?" he asked, knowing precisely what would make his godfather give in.

Sirius sighed.  "Fine, but make sure you're back at least by dinner.  Moony's coming over and we're making an excellent meal."

"Thanks Sirius!" Harry said jumping to his feet.  "See you at dinner!"

He followed Snape over to the fireplace, suddenly feeling a bit nervous about going to the professor's home.  This was something he had never dreamed of doing, something that would no doubt horrify Ron to no end.  

"It's called Snape Manor," the Potions master informed him before bellowing that exact name while standing in the green flames and disappearing.  

Harry threw his own powder into the flames and walked in, feeling extremely strange announcing that particular destination.  

He felt the familiar spinning sensation and soon tumbled out, landing on his hands and knees on a marble floor.  He quickly got to his feet and brushed off his robes, sending a glare at the Potions master who was watching him with a smirk of amusement.  

"Graceful as always."

Harry blushed but his embarrassment was soon replaced with awe as he looked around the room.  It was the largest room he had ever seen, with very elegant furniture and decorations.  The ceiling was so high he couldn't have touched it if he had been standing on someone's shoulders.  The walls were lined with bookshelves that contained more books than the Hogwarts library.  

"This is your house?!" he asked in amazement.  "The Lighthouse could fit inside this room!"

"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, but yes, this is my house.  Now are you planning to stand here the entire day with your jaw on the floor?" he asked with seeming impatience, though Harry could easily detect the amusement behind it.  

He grinned sheepishly and followed the man from the room into a very tall hallway.  They walked down to a large door.

Snape opened the door and gestured inside.  It was a large, elegant living room.  Harry's eyes quickly landed on a head of blonde hair.  He could see the side of Draco's face.  The blonde was staring into the fireplace, watching the dancing flames with sad eyes.  He hadn't even noticed the door opening.  

Harry walked in as Snape quietly closed the door behind him.  He walked over to the couch and sat down next to the blonde, causing him to finally look up in surprise.  Draco's eyes widened in surprise, but Harry just leaned back and watched the fire.  The Slytherin turned his eyes back to the flames.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked numbly.  

"Harry," he corrected.  

Draco opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind and went back to staring at the fire.  They sat there for a while in silence.  At first, Draco kept shooting questioning glances at Harry, clearly uncomfortable, but eventually just accepted his presence.  

"One time," Harry suddenly said, breaking the silence but not breaking his eye contact with the fire, "summer after first year, I was doing the dishes and my uncle was drunk, this was before he was drunk all the time, and he was screaming at my aunt saying that he didn't want me in the house.  He said I was ruining his life and that he didn't want a freak in the house.  It was stuff I'd been hearing forever so it didn't really bother me, well, at least not more than usual.  And then my aunt came in…and she looked me in the eye and she said, 'I hate you' with this intense amount of hatred.  It didn't really surprise me.  I knew she didn't like me.  But…"

"It still made you feel like shit?" Draco said quietly, now looking up from the fire.

Harry inhaled sharply and nodded his head.  It had been extremely difficult to say what he just had, but he also knew how the blonde was feeling and suspected that it was the only way to get through to him.  He didn't even really know why he was doing this.  He just knew that he didn't want the other boy to fall through the cracks.

Draco sighed sadly.  

"All my life it's been '_You're a Malfoy and so you have to be the best_.'  I was supposed to be just like my father, and that was fine with me because I admired him so much.  I _wanted_ to be like him," he said with a bit of a shudder.  "And then suddenly the Dark Lord was back and all that Death Eater crap started becoming really real.  I mean, I had been saying all my life that I'd be one if I could, but I never thought it would really happen and so I didn't have to think about what I was saying.  And then my dad started preparing me to be recruited and I started thinking that maybe I didn't want to.  Spending your whole life bowing down to somebody?  Anyways, he started trying to get me to take on the Dark Mark and send me on little errands and bring me to meetings and stuff.  When I said I wasn't ready for all of it, that's when, well, you know, he'd…"

Harry nodded.  Draco looked down at his lap and continued.

"That's when he'd hit me," he finally got out. "I stopped wanting to be like him so much, but he was still my father.  And it's sort of like you said, when he said I wasn't his son, I wasn't all that surprised, but in another way, I guess I was.  I just couldn't believe he would cast me away so quickly, just for being weak," he said, whispering the last part.

"M—Draco," Harry corrected himself.  The Slytherin looked up at his name and Harry caught his gaze, "you are not weak.  What you did was nowhere even near weak.  As I told you before, that was the bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do, and I'm not just saying that because it was me who you saved."

"What would you know about being weak?" Draco asked bitterly.  "You're the Boy-Who-Lived.  You're always brave.  You're always the hero.  You wouldn't understand what it feels like to know you failed everyone you ever cared about because you couldn't gather up the courage to do what you're supposed to do!"  

"First of all," Harry said firmly, "I do happen to know a thing or two about knowing you failed somebody, about being weak and scared and…and ashamed.  I'm not always brave or the hero, I just sort of always end up all wrapped up in something and get out of it with a major spot of luck.  Second, you've got a wrong picture about what you did.  You think you're weak since you couldn't torture another person?  That's rubbish.  That doesn't show that you're weak, it shows that you're human, that you're not another cowardly or heartless follower of some power-hungry maniac who gets off on seeing people tortured.  And the fact that you could find the courage to take a stand against your father takes more bravery than I've ever had."

Draco stared at him in bewilderment momentarily.  "Really?"

"Yeah, I'm terrified of my relatives, especially my uncle, but don't tell anyone that.  I think you're the only person I've ever told that to," Harry said worriedly.  

"And you trust me?" Draco asked incredulously.

"I wouldn't have told you any of this otherwise," he said.  It was almost true too.  He did have a feeling about Draco that told him he could trust the boy, possibly because of their somewhat similar troubles in life, but then again, Harry had a hard time completely trusting anyone, and the blonde was no exception.

"What happened to make him stab you?" Draco asked bluntly.  Harry looked away from him, a bit embarrassed.  

"Lost his job.  He thought I had done it with magic, but I think it was because he was drinking so much.  He must have looked like a royal screw-up at his job.  So…he just…lost it," he said with a sad shrug.  "You know, Professor Snape saved me.  He showed up right when it was happening and he saved me."

Draco looked at him incredulously. 

"Sev saved you?  He never told me that.  He just keeps saying that we're not so different but he won't tell me why he thinks that.  He seemed to know more than he was letting on," Draco said quickly, as if it was something he had been thinking about for a while.  

"Well, he was the first one who noticed the stuff with my relatives, so he ended up being the first one I told about it."  He paused with a thoughtful expression.  "And, aside from you, he's the only person I voluntarily told about it."

"You didn't tell Granger and Weasley?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"Well, Ron sort of found out, but I don't think he really understands how bad it was.  I made him swear not to tell anyone.  Hermione doesn't know all of it, thank Merlin, but she and the rest of the Weasleys did see my uncle punch me at the train station, so I guess that makes it all a bit obvious.  I just hope she doesn't ask Ron about it and find out more."  He stopped and blushed a bit at saying all these fears aloud.  "What about your friends, did they know?"

Draco laughed bitterly.  "Pot—Harry, do you honestly think that Crabbe and Goyle are the type to have a talk with?  They're like speaking with a brick wall, and that's being generous."  

"Hmm…I thought maybe they were just shy around other people," Harry said with a shrug. 

The two boys looked at each other for a second before they both laughed.  

"Okay, now that's just weird.  I never thought I'd hear you laugh if it wasn't at someone else," Harry said, cringing slightly at the tactlessness of his words.

"Yeah, well I never thought you'd be talking to me without looking like you were about to kill me."

"Well, I never thought I'd see you without your hair plastered to your head," Harry said with a smirk, nodding toward the other boy's hair.  Draco scowled at him.  

"I didn't exactly think I was going to be seeing anyone today," he said self-consciously, "especially you." 

"You know, it makes you look more human…what are you going to do?" Harry asked in mock-concern.

"Well, I'll have to gel it back to keep up my god-like appearance.  Don't want to look too much like you mortals," he said with a raised eyebrow.  

Harry gave an exaggerated gasp.  "He made a joke!  He has a sense of humor!  Call the Prophet!" he joked.  

"You're going to get annoying really fast, aren't you," Draco said suspiciously.  

"More than likely," Harry said with a smirk that was nowhere near as expert as Draco's.

Draco suddenly turned serious.  "So what are we doing?"

"Well, we are sitting on a couch and…."

"You know what I mean.  Are we supposed to just forget the past five years of making each other's lives miserable and become all buddy-buddy?" 

Harry thought about it for a second.  "Well, yeah, I guess.  I mean, we're both a bit different now, and well, _I'd_ like to give it a shot.  So, I guess it's up to you then," he said seriously.

"Well, I guess the tables have turned.  Last time we were in this situation, it was me extending the offer of friendship to you.  Of course we both know how that turned out," Draco said with a raised eyebrow.  Harry shrugged.

"I don't know if we would have made it as friends back then.  We were too different, both less…accepting."

"What makes you think it'll work now then?" Draco asked, trying to hide his curiosity. 

"Well, I'm not prejudice toward your house anymore and you've finally realized you don't want to be your father.  I guess we understand each other better now and Professor Snape was right, we have more in common than we knew," Harry said thoughtfully. "But who knows, maybe it won't work out.  We might just want to kill each other after half an hour.  But you never know until you try."

Draco thought about what Harry was saying.

"Oh, what the hell," he said with a look that clearly said God-help-me. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Harry grinned and held out his hand.  The two shook hands in an unspoken truce. 

"So, bet I could beat your arse on a broom," Draco said with a challenging smirk.  

"Only one way to find out."

"I have an extra broom."

"What kind?"

"Nimbus 2001.  I get to use my Lightning Strike of course."

"Good, so when I whip you, you can't blame it on brooms."

"Dream on, er…Harry."

Draco hopped up off the couch with more energy and happiness than he'd felt since the day his father had cast the Cruciatus Curse on him.  Harry couldn't help but grin as he followed his former archenemy from the room.  

The pair passed Snape on the way up to Draco's room.

"Sev, Harry's staying to fly for a bit," Draco said casually.  Snape's eyebrow shot up and nearly dropped the book he was reading.  

'_Well, that was quick_,' he thought in surprise.  

"So which Quidditch team do you support?" Harry asked.  "Professional, I mean, not Slytherin."

"The Hurricanes, of course," Draco said imperiously.

"What?  But their Seeker's rubbish!" Harry exclaimed, stopping in his tracks.  Draco turned to him with his jaw dropped.  None of his old friends ever contradicted what he said.

"What?  Their Seeker is _not_ rubbish!"

"I'll give you the Keeper.  He's good.   I mean, he made that incredible save against the Falcons, but you of all people have to agree that the Seeker's quite important," Harry said casually.  Draco looked taken aback at somebody actually challenging him.

"Well, of course, the Seeker's the most valuable player on the team, but…"

"And the Hurricanes's one just isn't good!  Every time he's caught the Snitch, it's been a complete shock of luck," Harry said enthusiastically. "Do you read _The Golden Snitch_?"

"No, I've had more important things to follow than Quidditch magazines," he said airily, but if Harry caught the snobby tone he didn't let on to it.

"Ok, well when you come over to my house, I'll show you the articles on the Hurricanes.  They describe the matches pretty well, so you can really tell what the players are like."

"Er…okay," Draco said in surprise that Harry was obviously planning on having him over to his own house as well.  He quickly recovered.  "But what sort of people run that magazine, because I'm not going to just automatically trust a bunch of biased buffoons…"

The two debated as they passed through the room and Snape watched them in shock.  He was surprised that Harry had been able to get through Draco's barriers so quickly, seeming to sense what to say to keep Draco from being offended or getting defensive.  

It was good that Draco really had someone to talk to now, even if it started out about simply Quidditch.  His godson's previous friends had generally been too moronic to hold a conversation with, so the blonde often talked down to them, something Snape found completely understandable.  His other peers in Slytherin were mostly brought up in high-class families who trained them to always speak properly and of proper things, always weighing their words carefully to avoid the politics that cropped up so often.  As far as Snape knew, Draco had never carried on a true conversation with someone as casual as Harry.  But then again, neither had Snape, really.  He was always surprised when he conversed with Harry at how relaxed a conversation could be.  Not that he would ever admit that.  

Snape picked up his book again and continued to read, wondering just how Harry Potter did it.

The two flew around casually the rest of the day with an unspoken agreement not to compete on brooms quite yet to avoid any fights.  Each were surprised at the ease in which they were able to talk to the other.  

The next day, Draco did come over to Harry's and the Gryffindor showed him all the information about important Seekers from his magazines.  In the end, Draco announced that the writers of _The Golden Snitch_ were biased and shortsighted, but at the same time seemed now more interested in the Seeker of the Meteorites than that of the Hurricanes.  Harry could only laugh at the blonde's obvious attempt to save his pride, unable to admit Harry was right.  Of course, once he found out that the Canons were Ron's team, Draco gained a sudden liking for the Tornadoes, rooting for them as the two teams in the posters continued their ongoing feud.    

Now that they were on good terms, Harry found Draco's high-class mannerisms and snobbery amusing.  If the blonde ever went too far with his comments, Harry only had to tell him and Draco would apologize, which took a lot of swallowing of pride.  For Harry's part, he tried not to bring up anecdotes of things he had done with his friends too often, since he knew that Draco had not had real friends before to tell tales about and was still not fond of Ron and Hermione. 

Harry was relieved to finally have someone that wouldn't shoot him pitying looks each time his home life came up or when he mentioned something having to do with dying.  It was nice to have someone who didn't treat him like he was going to break.  

Draco was secretly ecstatic that he finally had a friend that was an equal.  His old friends treated him like a little prince, but it made him feel so alone.  He had always felt the isolation of being on top of that pedestal.  But Harry knew what that was like.  Harry knew what a lot of stuff was like.  It took Draco awhile before he could get used to Harry challenging things he said, or simply disagreeing with him.  And even though Draco had initially thought this would drive him insane, it turned out he found it refreshing.  

Though the two still bickered over stupid things, they were surprised to find how well they actually got along.  It was a strange friendship for sure, both boys being different in many fundamental ways, but somehow, it just worked.

*

Draco and Harry walked into the Lighthouse kitchen, both winded from racing around on broomsticks, both Draco's since Sirius had stood by his word about not buying Harry a new one.  Draco collapsed into a chair, complaining that he was famished.  Harry would have rolled his eyes at the blonde's dramatics, but he felt the same way.  

"How about grilled cheese sandwiches?" Harry asked, pulling out some bread and cheese.  

Draco shot him a disgusted look.  "You're going to grill cheese?  That sounds disgusting."

"You've never had a grilled cheese sandwich?" Harry asked incredulously, pulling out the frying pan.  "Well, you have to try one then."

"Ha!  You must be thinking I'm someone without taste buds.  There is no way I'm eating something that sounds like something a seven-year-old would make as an experimentation," Draco said imperiously.

"Well, then you can make your own lunch," Harry said with a shrug.  Draco looked at him in horror.

"What?  I don't cook.  That's for house elves."

Harry glared at him but Draco responded with his famous smirk.

"Then you have a choice between grilled cheese sandwiches or nothing," Harry said with a satisfied look.  Draco huffed and crossed his arms.  "Besides, you should at least know how to cook something," he said as he flipped the sandwiches over.  "Otherwise you'll always be dependent on someone."

Draco only glared at him as Harry slid a plate in front of him with a sandwich on it.  

"Bon Appetite," Harry said cheekily.  Draco made a dramatic face as he lifted the sandwich slowly up and cautiously took a bite.  Harry watched him in amusement as he considered the taste.  It actually wasn't that bad.  In fact, he rather liked it.  He took another bite.  He looked at Harry in wonder.  The more he ate of the gooey sandwich, the more he loved it.  "Told you so," Harry said in a sing-song voice before starting on his own sandwich.

After the boys finished, Harry got up to make another one.

"Me too!" Draco said, leaning back in his chair to relax.

"You can make it," Harry said casually.  Draco whirled around to look at Harry in horror.  

"What?  I don't cook.  I've hardly ever been in a kitchen," he said firmly. 

"Well, _I'm _not making it, so if you want another one, you better come over and learn how to make it yourself," Harry said with a grin that showed what a kick he was getting out of the situation.

Draco begrudgingly got to his feet and came over to Harry's side, glaring at him the entire time.  Harry only smirked back and shoved a spatula into his hand.  Draco looked down it in disgust.

"Good, now you'll survive if your house elves ever disappear."

"You mean like Dobby?" Draco asked.  Harry shrugged with a grin.  "Well, it's best you got rid of him anyhow.  That one was a bit loony.  You're not seriously going to make me cook, are you?"

"Of course I am.  And I'm not ever making you a grilled cheese sandwich until you know how to make one yourself, so you better pay attention.  Alright, this is called a frying pan and this is a stove…"

Draco concentrated hard on the things Harry was telling him.  He watched Harry make his, and then copied what the dark-haired boy had done.  Though his sandwich ended up a little dark on one side, the blonde ended up with an edible sandwich.  

As the two sat back down to eat their sandwiches, Draco couldn't help but feel proud of himself.  He had finally done something on his own, even if it was something as trivial as making a sandwich.  He suddenly felt a little more confident about being able to make it without his father's support, even if he was getting there one small step at a time.

"You realize grilled cheese is a Muggle food," Harry commented casually, just to see the reaction.

Draco groaned loudly.

*

It was another night at the Burrow while all the adults were at the Order meeting.  Fred and George had employed Ron, Ginny and Harry to do some grunt work for them for the shop, promising to pay them each.  Harry didn't really care about the money, but Ron was enthused about the promise of silver.

"Alright, we need more order confirmation letters," Fred announced as soon as Errol came back from a delivery.  "Who wants to go get them?"

The room was silent.  

"What?  No volunteers?" George asked innocently.  Harry kept his mouth shut.  He had already had to go out to the shed five times in the past hour, somehow managing to be manipulated into doing it each time.  

"I elect Harry!" Ron said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Harry said indignantly.

"I second it!" Ginny said quickly to avoid getting the job herself.  George and Fred raised their hands to show their support for the movement.  

"Alright," he sighed, "but next time, you're going, Ron," he said, getting to his feet.  Ron just grinned at him cheekily.

Harry walked out the back door into the cool night air.  A dim glow inside the shed automatically appeared as he got close, helping guide his way to the door.  

He entered the shed to see the familiar stacks of boxes of things needed for running the shop, along with many broken Muggle gadgets that Mr. Weasley had taken apart to study and wasn't able to put back together.  

Harry lifted a broken clock off of the box with the labels he was looking for and took out a large stack of the papers before replacing the lid and setting the clock back on top.  He chuckled at the sight of the now-familiar collage of pictures of see-saws, escalators, roller coasters, and tractors as he walked back out of the shed and started toward the house. 

Suddenly, as he was making his way across the backyard, incredible pain shot through Harry's head.  His hands flew up to press against his temples in a desperate attempt to quell the pain.  The papers he had been holding fluttered to the ground as Harry looked to the Burrow desperately, but couldn't call out before his vision swam dangerously and grew dark around the edges.

He collapsed and the world went black.  

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N:  Please review!!  You all know they fuel my writing!  

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**Wiccan PussyKat: **Yes, ff.net can be majorly frustrating at times.  Don't worry, it'll be way long (possibly longer than Recnac) and I've crammed **lots**of stuff into this summer.  NO more sequels after this one, but an epilogue may be in store depending on whether all the necessary characters survive the summer.  *evil cackle*  Umm…right.  I'm glad you like Eloise.   I must say I'm rather fond of her myself.  She's definitely a romantic, but maybe not as hopeless as before :) Lol.  You'll have to deal with the H/G fluff, though there isn't has much in the middle of the story.  I'll try not to make it too mushy.

**LadyAbbeyBartlet: **I'm sorry you're disappointed, but I hope to convert you so that you'll like the story without it.  Maybe by the end of it you'll agree with me that it was the right thing to do!  I do have my reasons.  I loved book 5!  So much good stuff.  Anyways, keep reading and I hope you'll change your mind.  

**Bast4: **Wow, great questions!  I love inquisitive minds.  Let's se what I can answer.  As you can see, Draco's pushing his way into the story, and we have not seen the end of Kota.  Draco isn't a fan of Ron and Hermione and is still getting used to a friendship with Harry.  We'll have to see what happens from here.  Right now, Harry's too happy with his great summer to have nightmares, but they may come into play later.  Trouble from Death Eaters…I'll leave that up for you to guess at.  Otherwise you'll just have to read on and see!

**Thundering Lights: **Thanks!  I love this way of reviewing!  I think Vernon is a pretty common name in England, at least that's what one of the kids names were in Love Actually (FANTASTIC movie) and it's the name of this kid I met in real life from England.  It's tainted forever of course by the HP books, but I figured I'd pop it in there anyways just for the hell of it.  I know!  Ron definitely seemed to be rooting for Harry and Ginny to get together, though it might just be because he thinks Harry wouldn't go for her and therefore she would be safe in a date-free world, with her unrequited pining for Harry.  Of course, if that's the case, I can't wait to see his reaction when Harry does go for Ginny (b/c we all know he will!!)  Actually, even in Recnac, Ron approved of the relationship.  Why Harry's not pursuing it will come into play later.  Lol, I think redheads with green eyes seemed cute!  I'll get into why Sirius hasn't talked to Harry in a bit, don't worry.  Ron won't betray Harry's trust and tell Hermione, but she's probably generally figured it out by now.  She has her way of finding out things, so she won't remain clueless.  You're a great reviewer and I love your new way of reviewing.  Chem is definitely a hazard to sanity.

**Velith: **Well I do most things on purpose, often with very specific reasons, but you'll have to wait to see exactly what's going on.  The Dursleys had to be contacted after Harry was alive in order to officially transfer guardianship to Sirius.  Ahhh…boring teachers suck, but are also probably the reason I can get my fanfiction writing done, so I guess they're good for something.  

**Fair-Faye-Kahlan:  **Lol, I always write my stories how I want, but I do take suggestions from my lovely reviewers.  You can have the tall hunky man if I get Harry!  I hope this fic will make its way up to #2 on your list.  We'll have to wait and see.  Fanfiction addictions are perfectly fine in my book.  Same with review addictions, as I seem to have.  I really need meetings of some sort to deal with it.

**Serpent of Light:  **Very good insight.  I'll delve deeper into the reasons Harry hasn'thad talks yet later.  Many do think that way about Harry, as you'll se later, but the bigger problem is that Harry thinks he has to live up to that reputation.  Your hypotheses are definitely on the right track.

**Kate: **lol, it's not so good that you don't like emotional, since this is going to be an angsty fic, dealing with a lot of emotional repercussions of the events of Recnac.  Everyone's doing their best to move on passed past events, but a lot of them are trying to do it without truly dealing with the things to begin with.  But don't worry, most chapters won't contain the emotional type of talk like Mrs. Weasley had with her kids in Ch. 3.  I'm glad you like the bit with Sirius relating better to Ron and contrasting Harry with his father.  That little theme will come up occasionally throughout the story.  I hope you keep reading!__

Thank you for the wonderful reviews!!  : **Senri **(hey, it's too last minute to find you so I hope there's not very many mistakes. You know nothing my strange friend, and you know it! Oh hey and look, the beginnings of a plot!  Gerlack a pongos!), **sweet775 **(lol, well now there's a real plot starting), **Jedi-Bant **(lol, yeah, the Dursleys deserve nothing less than the burning pits of hell, but you'll just have to wait to see what's happening with them), **Mystic Phoenix,** **Tessbomb65 **(Thanks!  I hope you'll enjoy the fic anyways, despite the power thing), **Mikee **(I'm glad you like it and yes for both), **Lindiel Eryn **(we'll have to see!), **teaser, Terence **(feel better girl!  Spring break is not good for colds!), **lyss33, Tatshing, Slytherisa, H.P.otter5, mickeymoose, Shawn Pickett, bulldogchik05 **(I'm glad you finally found it!  I'd love a play-by-play review, but no hurry), **ArcticWolf2, Texasjeanette **(YAY!  One converted!  That's exactly what Harry and some others are going to have to learn, that he's not just special b/c of some fluke that made him more powerful.  He's great on his own too!), **Rum n' Coke, Helen, Phoenix Marauder, Siri Kat **(this fic may be longer than Recnac, though I'm not yet sure. George and Kota will come into play later, I haven't forgotten them), **Fiery Ferret of Doom, dea puella, Threetoedsloth **(don't you hate it when you break people's things?  All the things Harry told Ginny he'd broken have come from my life.  Oops?), **water drifter **(Thanks!), **Eternally*Mine **(Lol!  You seem to like angst with is very good for this fic.  All this stuff will eventually come into play.), **lilynjamesAAF, D, Nemati, Wynjara, happigolucki616 **(I have no clue about the chapters, but probably along the lines of the length of Recnac), **Agnes **(no more sequels to this, but possibly an epilogue if everyone makes it passed this summer I'm going to put them through.  I'm glad you like the story so far!), **Ashes7 **(hey thanks!), **SiriusWolf **(As much as I love slash, I wouldn't be able to ever write it, nor would it fit in with this story.  But good suggestions nonetheless), **Earthmom, PhoenixPadfoot89, Shadowarwen **(lol, I know, mean things are often so funny, but you always feel a bit bad laughing at them), **denaumo, Von **(well, I can see the detective work you're doing here, Mr. Holmes. We'll have to see if you're on to something.), **Savoy Truffle** (oh merci!  Lol, I wish I could publish Recnac.  Maybe one day I'll transform it into a non-HP story somehow and try just that.  Probably not, but you never know), **Kneh13, EriEka127, Charmed1s **(lol, why thank you!)**, Molly Morrison, Rocky235, hoi56 **(well, thanks! I'm glad you like it!), **HG/HrRFan4ever **(Hermione doesn't know much.  The first time she found out anything about it was at the train station and she's probably put a few things together from that, but that's the extent of her knowledge of it at this point), **Fantagal **(Good luck on the test. It's probably too late now, but they have practice tests online to study from.  That's what I did!), **Lourdes, Rhinemjr, catuniv **(can't tell you when exactly, but don't worry, they'll eventually come into play), **biblios **(I'm glad you like it!  It will have a plot of its own, but one that's tied into Recnac, not something completely random like a meteor taking out the Burrow or something. Lol.), **ckat44 **(I know!  I haven't seen you online at all!  Hopefully I'll catch you soon)**, athenakitty **(lol, quite possibly a bit of the "hair of the dog that bites." Of course, probably more like codfish oil and prune juice or something.  All those things are filled with such disgusting stuff you just truly don't want to know.), **Bosson12787, Romm **(lol, love is a fickle friend), 


	5. Questions and Answers

**Author's Note:** Hey all!  I'm back from my road trip and back to school.  Gah, I can't wait until this school year's over!  My road trip was great, though I nearly had to pee behind this tumbleweed next to the freeway.  Luckily, I convinced everyone I could hold it for about 5 more minutes and we left the tumbleweed for a rundown bathroom at a gas station, where I scared some man by walking into the men's restroom (the women's was out of order!). I started walking in and suddenly this guy starts screaming b/c he's peeing in the urinal. He scared the crap out of me, so of course, I screamed as well, and ran, and just settled for going in the out of order one.  Not my finest moment, I must say.  Anyways, you'll all be glad to know I spent the parts of the car ride, when I wasn't driving or participating in a Beatles sing-off, working on the fic instead of reading Hamlet like I was supposed to.  I, instead, read the entire play in one day, without the help of sparknotes (a major accomplishment for me, since Shakespeare is practically impossible for me to understand) but hey, I think I understood most of it and I actually liked it!  Imagine that. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"What's taking Harry so long?" Ginny wondered aloud.

"Maybe he found our stash of firewhiskey and got distracted," George joked.  

"He probably figures if he takes long enough, we won't make him run errands anymore," Ron said, shaking his head.

Fred got to his feet.  "I'll go check on the little bugger.  Might've gotten lost on the way back."

Fred made his way to the back door and stepped out onto the back porch, squinting into the darkness as his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden lack of light.  He pulled out his wand.

"Lumos."  

His heart skipped a beat at what the light revealed.  Papers were scattered across the grass and in the middle of them all lay Harry's crumpled form. 

Fred shouted urgently for his twin and raced across the yard to Harry's side.

"Harry?" he called, turning the raven-haired boy onto his back and shaking the boy's shoulders in an attempt to wake him, but Harry remained unconscious.

The other three Weasleys appeared at the door and were soon running over as well.

"What happened?  What's wrong with him?" Ginny asked frantically.

"Harry!" Ron called desperately.  The situation gave him a sickening sense of déjà vu.  He was relieved to see Harry's chest rising and falling, signaling that he was indeed alive.

A soft moan alerted the Weasleys to Harry's beginning of a return to consciousness.   

"Harry, wake up," George instructed him seriously.

Harry's eyes fluttered open and he blinked up at them in confusion.

"What happened?" he asked groggily as Ron and Ginny helped him sit up. 

"You don't remember?" Fred asked worriedly.  Harry furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.

"Um…I just remember walking toward the house and then there was this pain in my head.  And then it's just blank," he said nervously.

Fred and George jumped to their feet and pulled out their wands, pointing their lit tips out into the darkness.  

"What's going on?" Ginny asked the twins anxiously.  "You don't think Harry was attacked, do you?"

"That's what it sounds like," Fred said grimly, sounding the slightest bit frightened.  

"But the wards…" Ron insisted.

"Harry, has this happened before?  Have you been having headaches like this?" George asked.

Harry shook his head honestly. 

"Was it your scar?" Ron asked, frightened.

"Ron, Voldemort's dead.  And besides, that never made me pass out before.  And this felt like just a general pain," Harry tried to explain.

"Yeah, it definitely sounds like a curse.  We need to get out of here," Fred said.  

There was a rustle in the trees to their right and everybody stiffened with fright.  They all squinted into the darkness but could only see black. 

"Everybody back to the house, now," George ordered urgently.

Harry, Ginny, and Ron scrambled to their feet and started running toward the house, Fred and George following them, watching the trees to make sure somebody didn't pop out of the darkness.

Once inside, the twins locked the door behind them and led the three younger teens to the living room.  Fred and George ushered them through the fireplace and followed behind them to the Lighthouse, sealing off the connection behind them just in case.  

Fred went on to Floo to Snape Manor where the Order meetings were most often held, while George stayed behind with the other three.  

The three Weasleys kept shooting Harry scared looks.  Harry knew they were thinking about the same things he was.  Somebody had broken the wards around the Burrow.  They had cursed Harry, and who knew what might have happened if Fred hadn't come out to check on him when he did.  Harry couldn't help but imagine Death Eaters taking him and exacting revenge for destroying their master.  

Harry couldn't help but feel a bit guilty as well.  If Death Eaters had broken through the Burrow's wards, it was most likely in order to get to Harry, yet the safety of the Weasleys had been put at risk as well.  The Burrow had always been a place of complete comfort and security.  Harry had never imagined being attacked there and he was sure the Weasley children hadn't either.  But now, that image had been shattered.

Harry got up to make tea, but the three Weasleys forced him to sit down as they took care of it themselves.  Harry insisted he was fine, but the three redheads seemed doubtful.  It seemed he had lost his credibility in determining how he felt.  

Finally, they heard the fire roar to life in the living room and ran in to meet the adults that were following Fred through.  Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked very frightened, while Sirius ran over to Harry and asked him if he was all right.  

Snape came through as well, giving Harry a quick health check.  Harry explained to the best of his ability what had happened.

"It sounds like a curse.  I know of a few dark ones that have this effect," Snape concluded. "But it doesn't make sense that the attacker would just disappear.  Are you sure you didn't see anyone?" he asked Harry, purposely avoiding saying his name in front of others.  For some reason, he felt uncomfortable with general people knowing he was on a first name basis with the Boy Who Lived.  

"No," Harry said, "I guess Fred must've scared them off."

Snape remained doubtful.  "I doubt Death Eaters would be afraid of a freshly graduated wizard who doesn't know a stitch of dark magic."

"Maybe they thought my mum and dad were home and that they would come when Fred called," Ginny suggested.  "I mean, they don't have You-Know-Who on their side anymore and the remaining Death Eaters are high on the wanted list.  Maybe they were afraid of being caught and thrown into Azkaban."  

Sirius opted to stay with the four teenagers, uncomfortable with leaving them alone with the idea of what had happened, while Snape Flooed over to the Burrow where the Weasley parents and the rest of the Order currently were. 

A couple hours later, after the kids had all gone upstairs, the Weasleys and Snape returned, the latter to use the fireplace, since Snape Manor's Floo system was hooked up to very few fires for protection, the Lighthouse's being one of these few.

"Did you find anything?" Sirius asked worriedly, immediately placing cups of tea in front of the two Weasleys.  Snape had already disappeared back to his lair, as Sirius called it.  

"No.  It's the strangest thing.  Not a single ward seems to be out of place.  The alarms to signal if any were broken haven't been triggered.  And we didn't find anyone," Mr. Weasley said in confusion.  

"Dumbledore put up a few more wards and insists it's fine to go back home, but I can't help but worry that he's missed something, since it looks like he missed something the first time," Mrs. Weasley added.  "But we've searched the house from top to bottom and there's no indication of an intruder or anything."

"Well, there's not much room, but you all are welcome to stay here any time," Sirius offered.  

"Thank you, Sirius, but if we're ever going to feel safe at home, we really need to get back to it tonight.  Dumbledore's insisted it's safe and, just in case, he's placed some Order members to be on call and to check on us for the next few nights.  And we've set up emergency Portkeys in all the bedrooms that will take us immediately to Hogwarts if activated.  I'm not too worried about it," Mr. Weasley said.

"How's Harry doing?" Mrs. Weasley asked in concern.  "I just can't believe he was attacked at our house."

"He seems to be doing fine.  He says his head doesn't hurt and hasn't from the second he came to," Sirius said, pretty confident that Harry was telling the truth about this one.

"Oh, why can't those nasty people just leave him alone," Mrs. Weasley sighed.  "Haven't they put him through enough?"

"Well, he killed their master, so I'm sure they all want him dead," Mr. Weasley said quietly, sipping his tea.

"Even more reason to get them all rounded up and locked away," Sirius said grimly. "Then Harry might actually be able to walk around in public without having to be followed by a legal wizard.  He could actually be a regular kid for once instead of having to be worried about people trying to murder him at every turn."  

"Harry will be fine.  Tonight will be the last time something like that happens to Harry," Mr. Weasley said confidently.  "The Lighthouse is ten times as protected as the Burrow and practically no one knows where it is.  And from now on, we'll just have to make sure the kids stay inside while we're having meetings or come here or something.  There's no way they can get to Harry.  You have nothing to worry about, Sirius."

*

The next day, Draco came through the fireplace into the lighthouse with a troubled expression on his face.  

Harry stood up to greet him in surprise, but Draco cut him off.

"I need to talk to you," he said anxiously.  Harry nodded and the two boys went up to his room.  Draco sat down on Harry's bed and put his head in his hands with a sigh.

"Draco, what's the matter?" Harry asked worriedly.

"What do you know about the remaining Death Eaters?" Draco asked bluntly, lifting his head out of his hands.  Harry looked at him in surprise but tried to answer the question.

"Er…besides the fact that one cursed me last night, not much.  Sirius and Remus don't really talk about the Order stuff.  I mean, I figure they're banning together and trying to continue what Voldemort started, but that's all," Harry said, sitting down in his desk chair.

"Well, Sev talked to me last night about it.  You're right with the banning together thing, but they've got a new leader," Draco said ominously.  

"Professor Trelawney?  I knew she wanted me dead!" Harry joked, but Draco didn't even crack a smile.

"My dad," Draco said quietly.

The two sat in silence for a few moments.  Harry had actually guessed that if the Death Eaters were to choose a new leader, that Lucius Malfoy would be a probable candidate, but he had never mentioned it to Draco.  He knew this situation must be really hard for the blonde.  The man that had brought him up was now on a different side of a war than he was. 

"Draco, you know that's no reflection on you," Harry said cautiously.  Draco just looked away and scowled.

"You know, his first priority is going to be to kill you.  He's going to need to show that he can defeat the person that the old Dark Lord could not," he said bitterly.  Harry winced and chuckled weakly. 

"He won't get to me," he said with more confidence than he felt.

"He wants to kill me too.  I'm a traitor and you don't want to know what they do to traitors.  It's almost as bad as what they do to people who kill their leader," he teased weakly.

"Oh thanks," Harry murmured.

"I'm not like him, I swear," Draco said quietly.

"Draco," Harry said firmly, "I wouldn't be your friend if I didn't already know that."  He smirked slightly and adopted a lighter tone. "But hey, thanks for not wanting me dead.  That's the first sign of a strong friendship, you know."

Draco rolled his eyes with a small laugh, but it didn't last.  He looked up at Harry with a grim expression.

"Well, everyone else thinks I'm like him.  And when the greater public finds out it's my dad who's the new Dark Lord, they're all going to turn on me.  It's going to be like being the son of You-Know-Who!  I'll never be able to go back to Hogwarts."

"It doesn't matter what everyone else thinks, as long as you have a few people to stand behind you.  Trust me, I've been through the whole pariah of the wizarding world thing quite a few times.  You get through it.  Plus, anyone without mush for brains will realize that you are not on that side.  I mean, Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts was all over the news, including what you did.  People will probably praise you.  Hey, maybe they can start doing articles on you now!  Then everyone can read about you in class and tease you in the halls, oh it's such good fun!" Harry joked.  Draco glared at him playfully but then couldn't help but laugh.

"Like the wonderful articles on your girlfriend?  Miss Chang?"

Harry made gagging sounds and motions.  He then straightened up and looked at Draco warily.

"You _do_ know that I never went out with her, right?" he asked.

"Okay, but the question is, did you really fancy her at any point?" Draco asked, climbing out of the depressed mood he'd arrived in. 

Harry blushed.  "Er…I plead temporary insanity," he muttered.  Draco laughed.  "Well everyone's had stupid crushes before, right?" he insisted.

"Yeah, no kidding," Draco said absently.  He had gotten up to prod the Tornado team members in the poster to start another fight with the Cannons players in the next poster.  Harry looked at him curiously.

"Well, who was yours?" he asked.  Draco stilled.

"No one," he said, a little too quickly.  Harry grinned.

"You have to tell me, that's the rules," he said, matter-of-factly.  "Come on, Draco, I won't tell anyone, and I'll bet you've never told anyone before!  The best part about dumb crushes is telling people about them."

Draco glared at him and sighed. 

"Fine, but you have to swear not to laugh."

"Well, I can't swear that, but I'll try my best not to," Harry compromised.

Draco mumbled something unintelligible.

"What?  I can't hear you," Harry said.  Draco shot him his best glare and cleared his throat.

"Granger," he snapped.

Harry's jaw dropped.

"Hermione?" he asked incredulously.

Draco groaned and slumped back onto Harry's bed.  "It was a stupid little phase at the end of third year that, believe me, I got over very quickly when I came back to my senses.  Don't ever tell a soul, especially not the Weasel or Granger."

"I swear I won't tell, but…Hermione?  You hate her.  You've always been rotten to her.  You think she's beneath you," Harry said, flabbergasted.

"She _is _beneath me and I _do_ hate her.  It was a just a flash of a crush.  No girl had ever stood up to me before and I was intrigued.  But then I remembered that she was a know-it-all mudbl—"

"Draco," Harry warned. 

"Sorry," he grumbled.

"So, who else have you fancied?" Harry asked in amusement.  Draco looked more confident now that the subject had drifted from such uncomfortable territory.

"Well, not many, really.  I have dated quite a few though, most of whom I didn't fancy, but who, of course, fancied me," he said smugly.  Harry laughed at the Slytherin's arrogance.  Draco began going through a list of all the Slytherins, and a few Ravenclaws that he had gone out with.  Of course, Draco had found faults with all of them, but still seemed very proud of his dating record.  Harry was amazed at the sheer number of girls Draco had dated, especially when so many seemed to hate him.

"Well you see," the blonde explained, "they're just entranced by my good looks.  They really just flock to me."

"Only because they think you might lend them some extra hair gel," Harry retorted.  Draco glared at him, but the Gryffindor only laughed.

"Alright, well now it's your turn," Draco said.  "And remember, I admitted the Granger thing to you, so you'd better be honest."

"Er…well, there was Cho, of course.  And then…alright, you can't tell anyone.  If Ron finds out, he might murder me."

Draco's jaw dropped. "You fancy Granger?" he asked incredulously.  "What is it with her?"

"No!  Hermione has been and always will be just my friend," Harry clarified.  Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Then it's the Weaslette, is it?"

"Er…" Harry said, his blush confirming the question.

"Oh Merlin help us.  A Weasley.  I don't even understand how you could be _friends_ with a Weasley and now you want to date one?" Draco asked with a groan. "Why do you do this to me?"

Harry grinned.  "Well the entire goal behind it is to annoy you, of course," he said.  "But seriously, you'd like her."

"You know, I think it's good we're friends now.  You need my influence to clear up your head.  We're going to get you a nice high class girl with no interest toward Muggles," Draco said haughtily.

"You do realize I grew up with Muggles," Harry reminded him.

"An unfortunate mistake."

"And my mum was Muggleborn."

Draco blanched at him.  "What?  No she wasn't!  You're pureblood!" he said seriously.  Harry looked at him bizarrely.

"Er…I think I would know.  She was my mum.  Why do you think her sister's a Muggle?" 

Draco looked at him incredulously.  "I thought she was a squib.  I was always told you were a pureblood.  That's what all the Death Eaters think, or at least what they've told us."

"Really?  Why would they tell everyone that?  I mean, some of them have to know since they went to school with my mum," Harry said confusedly.

"I guess it's to make you look more powerful.  That way, the Dark Lord wouldn't have looked as bad failing to kill you and you'd look like a greater threat, more equal to the Dark Lord or something," Draco said thoughtfully.

"But we'd be more equal if they didn't go around telling people that I was pureblood.  I mean Voldemort was a half-blood…"

"WHAT?" Draco yelled, looking at Harry with wide eyes.  "No way."

"His dad was a Muggle.  He told me himself.  I think that's one reason he hates Muggles so much, since his dad left when he found out his mum was a witch," Harry said. "I've been to his grave, in a Muggle cemetery."

"You just decided to pop over and say hi to the Dark Lord's Muggle dad?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Well, it wasn't exactly a choice.  I'm sure your father told you about what happened at the end of last year," Harry said darkly, pushing away the memory.

"Oh yeah.  Sorry," Draco apologized quickly.  "But I can't believe this.  I'm pretty sure at least most of the Death Eaters think that he was pureblood.  Wow, I can't imagine what most of them would do if they found out they were bowing down to a half-blood."

"Hmm…maybe I should send them a letter, you think?" Harry joked.  "How about a greeting card saying '_Surprises are fun, aren't they?_' on the cover?"  Suddenly Harry's face turned serious.  "Wait, you're okay with me being part Muggle, right?"

Draco groaned and made a face. 

"Are you _sure_ you're not a pureblood?" he asked hopefully.

"Positive."

"Fine then, I guess I'm okay with it," he grumbled.  "But you're the only exception.  This doesn't mean I'm going to start liking Muggles and mud…er…people with Muggle blood in them in the general sense."

"Oh, I feel so honored," Harry said sarcastically.

Draco looked at him and shook his head.  He sighed.

"So, the Dark Lord was defeated by a half-blood and was a half-blood himself.  My ex-dad is trying to kill my only friend, and started by attacking him last night.  I'm probably number two on the hit list.  I'm living with someone who's trying to get me to do Potions homework within the first month of summer holidays, my worst enemy is now my friend and trying to press upon me his Muggle and low-class ways.  I've just revealed my darkest secret about my crush on a Muggleborn.  Is it sad that the thing that's most forefront in my mind is the fact that I want a grilled cheese sandwich?" 

Harry burst out laughing.  "Hey, that's the power of the grilled cheese sandwich."

"I tried to make one at home, but I kept burning it.  It didn't taste the same," Draco pouted.

"Alright, I'll make you one…"

Draco's face lit up.

"…under one condition"

The blonde's expression turned suspicious.

"What condition?" he asked warily.

"You're helping me wash the dishes."

"WHAT?" Draco yelped.  "I don't do dishes, or cleaning of any sort for that matter."

"Well, that's sad that you're just going to have to watch me eat my sandwich without one yourself," Harry said with a shrug, getting up.

"Ugh, fine…but I really hate you for this," he grumbled.

"I'll have to introduce you to Macaroni and Cheese.  That way, I can get you to help me on _all_ my chores!" Harry said brightly.  Draco chucked a pillow at him.

*

"So, Harry, I keep forgetting to ask you, did you ever have the ferret face over?" Ron asked.  

Hermione looked over interestedly.  

The three were lying out on a hammock that Harry, Sirius and Remus had constructed between two trees.  Harry and Hermione were stretched out next to each other, with Ron lying the opposite way, his head on the other side of the hammock.  They were all sipping lemonade, and Harry was doing his best to ignore the fact that Ron and Hermione kept playing footsie every time there was a lull in the conversation.

"Yeah, I did.  I've been to his house too," Harry said, taking a sip of his lemonade.

Two pairs of eyebrows shot up.

"His house?  Meaning Snape's house?" Ron asked incredulously.  "Are you mad?"

"Well, are you going to tell us how it went?" Hermione asked interestedly, ignoring the indignant looks of her boyfriend.  

"Actually, it went well.  I'd say we're friends now," Harry said.  Ron's jaw dropped.  Even Hermione looked shocked.

"Friends?" Ron choked.

"He's changed, guys.  I don't know if he was ever really that bad.  I mean, he had a father who was the Dark Lord's right hand man, and he was brought up to think he was better than everyone.  But he's really trying now to change certain things.  As long as you don't really take the arrogance thing personally, it's sort of funny," he said with a shrug.

"Harry, come on!  This is Malfoy you're talking about!  Mr. Spoiled, Rich Kid Brat.  You know, the one that calls Hermione a you-know-what and insults my family on a regular basis?  Are you just going to ignore that fact?" Ron asked, very annoyed.

"He's trying, Ron.  And it's not like I let him insult you guys.  If you guys just started over with a clean slate, I think you guys might get along…"

"Harry, I'm with Ron on this one.  You might be ready to forget it all, but I don't think we're quite ready to," Hermione said gently.

"That's alright, I'm not going to try to force you all to be best mates or anything.  I mean, I would like to keep all my body parts intact.  Just, please don't be mad that _I'm_ friends with him."

"You're not going to ditch us for Malfoy, are you?" Ron asked with true worry.

Harry laughed.  "Of course not!  You guys are my best friends forever!  Just because I have someone to hang out with while you guys are playing footsie…"

His two friends blushed crimson and Ron jerked his bare foot away from Hermione's with a guilty grin.

"…doesn't mean we're not best mates anymore."

"Awww…" Hermione cooed with a chuckle, ruffling Harry's hair fondly as he blushed.

"Group hug!" Ron announced.  Harry's eyes widened as his two friends pounced on him, laughing heartily.  

Then the hammock flipped over, sending them all crashing to the ground.  

"Ouch," Ron groaned.

The three dissolved into fits of laughter. 

*

"What the hell, Harry?  What do you mean you're friends with Malfoy?  Are you psychopathic?" Eloise exclaimed.  "How could you be friends with someone who says my face looks like a pizza?!"

Neville was gaping at him in shock.  "Malfoy, Harry?  _Malfoy_?" he asked incredulously.

"You guys, he's a product of his making, or however that expression goes.  He's trying to change.  He has no one," Harry explained with a sigh.  They were sitting out on the porch steps of the Lighthouse, except for Eloise, who was now pacing wildly in front of them.

"Let somebody else be his friend, Harry, you're not the lonely person rescue committee," Eloise said agitatedly.

"Well, I know what it's like to have no friends and be sitting all alone through the entire summer.  His only company is Professor Snape," Harry tried.  This seemed to gain their sympathy a little bit, especially Neville's.  "He's not horrible like he used to be.  He was just a bit…misguided.  And if he ever calls you anything like that again, Eloise, I'll punch him myself, okay?"

Eloise plopped down with a huff on the steps.

"How did this all happen so quickly?" Neville asked, bewildered.  "A few weeks ago, you were enemies, and now your friends?"

"Well, as I said, he's changed a lot.  I think he was sort of in the process of changing all last year and then the thing with his father happened and that did it.  I don't know, I guess it was just one of those times, one of those crossroads in life where a bunch of stuff's just happened and a bunch of stuff's just changed drastically, so you might as well add one more change to the bunch before the opening's gone, you know?" Harry tried to explain. "It probably wouldn't have worked at any other time, but his friends have all abandoned him, he's looking to get away from who his father wanted him to be, and I stepped in because after all the stuff from last year, I've realized that I don't want to waste my energy on having him as an enemy, and it everything just sort of…clicked."

"Are you saying it was fate?" Eloise asked, now intrigued.  She was a big believer in fate.  Her parents had become friends during one fateful detention.  The three of them had become friends because of an understanding of potions that Harry wasn't supposed to have.  And now her dream guy was owling her, but they only met because Roger's date happened to have a major crush on her date.  She had always believed in fate, but her beliefs had really solidified because of the events of the previous year. 

"Er…maybe?" Harry said without the slightest clue, but if it would gain Eloise's support, he'd go with it.  

"Hmm…maybe you're right then.  Who knows, maybe one day something really great will happen, all because of this random friendship," Eloise said with a little more enthusiasm.

Harry and Neville rolled their eyes and chuckled.

"Hey, you'll see," Eloise said matter-of-factly.  "Fate works in strange ways."

"Especially in love, right?" Harry teased.

"Of course.  Think about how fate let you meet and get close to Ginny," Eloise pointed out.  Harry blushed.

"We're just…"

"Shut it, Harry, you're NOT just friends and you're messing up my point.  Okay, onwards.  If that troll hadn't gotten into the school first year, Ron and Hermione would never have gotten together.  If that guy hadn't stood up my mum, my parents would never have gotten together.  Fate is everywhere."

Harry put a shocked look on his face, as if he had just had an epiphany. "And if the world didn't turn the sun wouldn't come up and you would never have seen Roger and gotten a crush!  Oh my God!  Eloise, you're right!  It's fate!" Harry exclaimed, standing up and throwing his hands toward the sky.  "And because I've even met another human being, it must've been fate!"

"Oh shut it Harry," Eloise said with a playful glare, chucking a dirt clod at him. 

"But seriously, Eloise, don't you think people have some choice in the matter?  I mean, I probably would have ended up in Slytherin, but I _chose_ to go to Gryffindor.  Is that fate, or is that choice?" Harry asked.

"I agree with Harry, I think," said Neville thoughtfully.  "I mean, you choose to fall in love with the people you do."

"Neville, Neville.  Don't you know?  If there's anything you can't control, it's love, otherwise, it would be far too boring."

Neville and Harry exchanged a look, knowing Eloise was on another one of her rants.

"Everyone would love the easiest person to love in their situation and there would be no lovely complications that bring about the greatest love stories of our times!  If you had control over the matter, it wouldn't be love it would be…like picking out groceries or something."

"But doesn't who you are affect who you love?  And you choose to be the way you are…" Harry interjected, but Eloise cut him off.

"You choose who you are to some extent, but if we were completely who we chose to be, then what is your excuse for Malfoy again?" she said with a smirk, knowing she had turned Harry's words against him.

Harry held up his hands with a chuckle.  "I surrender."

"I don't know, Eloise, I mean, if people were fated to love certain people, then why wouldn't everyone just pair off easily.  Why would some people get stuck loving a person who already loves someone else?" Neville asked.  Harry noticed a slightly sad twinge to his voice, and wondered if he was speaking from personal experience.

"I never said fate was nice.  I mean, you just kind of proved my point.  Why would you _choose_ to love someone who wouldn't love you in return?  You don't.  That's fate playing games with you.  Of course, I also happen to believe in karma.  I think if you're a good person, fate will treat you nicely, and even if it seems like it's dealing out a rotten deal, it'll all work out for the best in the end," Eloise said confidently.  "We're all good people, so we don't have to worry.  We'll all end up with very happy love lives."

Neville looked away sadly, as if he didn't believe what Eloise had just said.  For Neville's sake, Harry hoped what Eloise was saying was true, because if he was right in his guess about who Neville fancied, fate was working in some strange ways.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

A/N: Oops, looks like I went a bit overboard with review responses, but oh well.  I had a bad day and needed the distraction.  A quick note: Voldie is indeed dead.  That is your only clue.  Please give me reviews!  I'm in for a very bad week, which has unfortunately already begun. Please cheer me up with your wonderful reviews!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Lol, I see you're trying to be a master sleuth here.  Well Sherlock, I'll let you formulate your own opinions about stuff and either prove or disprove them with my chapters.  But don't stop!  I love it when fun reviewers like you play the guessing game. Lol, yeah, Ginny's clumsy, but so is Harry and so am I! Lol, I can't tell you how many things I've broken in my lifetime out of klutziness.  I especially hate breaking other people's things because I feel so guilty.  No worries, there will be enough Harry angst for you to fill a swimming pool with in this story.  Hmm…swimming in angst, not sure that's such a good idea, but there you go.  I am so sorry about your kitty!  I have a dog who nearly died (the neighbor boy poisoned him because he was in a fight with my brother) and I know how sad it can be.  I honestly have no idea how I managed the 186% error on my science lab.  This would demonstrate the reason I am NOT going into science in college.  Hopefully Harry's convo with Eloise and Neville cleared up why his friendship with Draco happened so fast.  It's just one of those things, I guess.  Harry doesn't mention it to Eloise and Neville, but think of how good it must be to finally have somebody who understands a bit of what he went through with his family.  Same with Draco.  Of course, Draco won't be accepted so easily by everyone else.  Draco's so relieved to have an actual friend who he thinks of as an equal that he's latched on as well.  Voila. The recipe for seemingly instant friendship, though if you look under the surface a bit, you'll realize that they spent a whole year getting to the point to where they could be friends, so maybe it's not so instant after all.

**Leena7: **I'm sorry about your aunt.  I have been there before.  I hope everything works out for her.  Most of the stuff in the Order meetings will remain secret, though you can get the main gist from chapter 1 and what Draco tells Harry in this chapter.  They're just trying to round up the last of the Death Eaters, though it seems they now are getting reorganized.  The Dursleys will be discussed later, never fear!

**Serpent of Light: **I'm so glad you like how Harry and Draco's friendship is going and super glad you think everything's so realistic!  Lol, yeah, it must be a relief for both of them to have someone who understands about crappy families.  Sev would definitely be a good person for Harry to go to with problems except their relationship isn't exactly at that point.  They are still both getting used to the idea of being something other than enemies, and Harry would not be very comfortable going to him with emotional problems.  Of course, Harry doesn't go to anyone with his emotional problems, but I guess I'm saying Snape is not an exception, though perhaps for a different reason.  Snape won't pity him.  I don't know if I'm making sense, but you'll see a lot of this issue throughout the fic so hopefully everyone will start to get a grasp of what there relationship is like. Lol, you'll see what happens with the Dursleys all in good time. Lol, I've dreamed of being an author since kindergarten so I have thought of publishing something original, though none of my stories have ever made it passed the 10 page mark, besides Recnac and Flawed.  You want to hear a weird coincidence though?  When I was in the 5th grade, before ever hearing about Harry Potter, I started writing a story about a boy around the age of 12 that finds out he's a wizard and that a dark wizard's after him.  Of course it was a bit different, but there were some big parallels with HP.  I still think I might finish it one day and try to publish it, though the main idea might be too similar to HP. 

**Kellie: **lol, oops?  Okay, well Vernon's not a common name, but honestly, the kid in Love Actually is named Vernon and my brother's friend is called Vernon!  All the signs were pointing to it!  Lol, oh well, then Eloise is just a bizarre girl who randomly thought of Vernon.  I'll try to eventually read your fic, but I'm so busy and have so many people asking me to read theirs that I just don't think I'll have time. Please don't be offended, I swear, I just don't have the time!

**LadyAbbeyBartlet: **lol, well, just as I ask my readers to trust me with decisions I make in my story, I trust that JK knows what she's doing, even if it is heartbreaking at times.  I think there were light moments!  I love the D.A. meetings and the stuff with Cho was just adorable!  Harry got his first kiss!  Plus, I love the thing with Snape and Grawp was just awesome. I loved how she started bringing out Ginny's character and is hinting at a future relationship between the two. At first, I didn't like the fact that Harry was being so snappy with his friends, and am still not sure I'm the biggest fan of that idea, but on the other hand, I'm relieved that she made him seem actually human!  It made me able to relate to him more, you know?  He's not perfect. He's an angsty teen with so much on his shoulders.  I think she had so much angst in this story because she needs to show how Harry temporarily nearly drowns in all the burdens on his shoulders, but will learn how to deal with it and grow from it.  Lol, of course, this is just me speculating, but this is what I do. Lol. I am glad you like my fic though and think it's balanced!  Great compliment for me!  Oh yes, and my favorite aspect of the 5th book: she brings out Neville's character more!!  I love Neville!  He's one of my favorite characters.  I've always wanted to just go and give him a hug.  I honestly think if I went to Hogwarts, he'd be the first one I'd befriend.  Whew, okay, done with my rant on book five.  I will make you see my way with the power thing, LAB, if it's the last thing I do!  Muahahaha

**bulldogchik05: **wow, thank you for the awesome review!  I did have fun reading! Lol, yeah, Sirius is trying to be all godfatherly, even though we'll see soon that he doesn't quite have it all down. He has a lot to learn, but hey, he's new at this!  Yeah, Sirius knows a bit about Harry and Draco's former enemy status, though he of course was never exposed to the drama between them as Harry's friends have, making it easier for Sirius to accept the Slytherin than it will be for Harry's friends. Lol, what can I say?  I was cooking grilled cheese and was inspired for a scene! Lol, you know you loved the cliffie.  Otherwise, where would the excitement be? Thanks for the awesome review, by the way.  Very helpful and enjoyable for me!

Also thanks to: **Nation El-Diablo, dominy **(No prob! You're on the list!), **Lourdes1 **(Italy?? I'm so jealous!! I've always wanted to go there!  I hope you had fun!), **toppy, obsessedw/hpbutitsok, Becca, Velith **(I know! I can't believe that about the 4th movie.  I was, and am, so mad!  And for Merlin sakes, I hope you're wrong about Rowan Atkinson being Voldie, otherwise, I will give up all hope for the competence of the casting directors.  You live in Ireland????  That is so cool!  I'm so jealous!  How do you like living there? I love Irish accents!), **Helen, anjelictiger **(lol, what would a story be without the cliffies! Have you ever heard the Garth Brooks song "I've got friends in low places"?  It's sooo awesome! I'm glad you like Sev and Dray as goodies, b/c they're going to play a big part in this story.), **Elvin-Godess-Riona, Liz, Terry **(aww, I hope you're feeling better! Ooh, I've got style?  Just like Dumbledore! I think my favorite quote in HP5 is "You know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts…but you cannot deny he's got style…" (p.623 in US version) lol, I love it!  My toe is indeed on its way to recovery, merci!), **Laterose, EriEka127, anirtak, water drifter, shadowsfriend, Lindiel Eryn, Fairy, catiechan **(lol, aww, now I'm blushing! Thank you!  Lol, Sirius is a funny guy. He's not getting Harry a new broom right now, but we all know what a softie he is. That might not last too long.), **shadowarwen **(lol, glad to be able to motivate you!), **Lauren, Eternally*Mine **(lol, well it seems you've pegged Ron, though you'll see more of that tension later in the story.  That song is so great!  Ooh, good catch!  Many seemed to miss that, thinking his scar was hurting. I congratulate you on picking up on it!), **fantagal **(you got your license? Um…congratulations! *makes sure airbags are working well* lol, my sis is getting her permit soon and my bro got his license last year.  It is very frightening. Good luck with the test!), **Jay-Jay, lyss33, Istalksiriusonweekends **(lol, best username EVER!! I bow down to your wonderful username.  It rocks!), **rachegrint, alternativelyspliced **(what's a story without some cliffies?), **Kjkit, janessa, angel74 **(lol, tell me about it. My chem teacher didn't find it as cool as I did though. Don't worry, plenty of bonding scenes between Harry and Draco.  Hmm…not a vision, just a pain.  I love being an evil author.  It's just so fun to send people headed straight over cliffs.  But on the other hand, so are you!  I can't wait for your next chapter so update!)**, Phoenix Marauder, Musicstarlover, voxenking **(lol, thank you!  It's definitely okay for you to recommend my story! I'd be very honored. I'm all blushy now), **honeyduck, jo0609, hoi456, Kate Potter, MissLilyStar **(lol, I can't get enough of the Sirius vs. serious jokes lol.  Voldie is definitely dead.  That's all I'll say on that matter.  I'm glad you like the H/D friendship. Yay for movie 3!  Of course, in my mind, Sirius is a sex god, but then again, so are most HP characters.  Ella Enchanted movie was not even close to the book.  The book would kill the movie in a fight.), **Kate **(hey no worries! I appreciate your criticism of chapter 3.  Without it, how would I ever become a better author?  I'm so glad you liked the chapter!  Lol, I've read Macbeth before, but this time it was Hamlet.  Hamlet is much better, even if I did end up reading the entire play in one day so I could spend my time in the car working on this fic!), **Wynjara**, **lilynjamesAAF, Siri Kat **(lol, it seems that way doesn't it, but take a closer look at Recnac.  Draco spends a whole year going through subtle, yet major changes.  The events with his father at the end were really what changed him the most. He's still the old Draco in many ways, but he has also changed in big ways due to many changes in his life: family and old friends are gone, and whole ideas of his beliefs have changed.), **mo, Fair-Faye-Kahlan, procrastinator-99, texasjeanette **(I'm glad you've picked up on Harry's ability for communication with different people.  I wish I knew how to know what to say like he seems to.), **Von, michelle, Arctic Wolf2, athenakitty **(lol, though Marge should be eaten alive by her dogs, she's not going to be in this story, though the Dursleys will be discussed later.  Snape's surprised about Harry being able to connect with Draco because he was able to do it so quickly, while Snape's been trying to get through to him all summer. Plus, Harry was Draco's enemy while Snape was the blonde's godfather, yet Harry was the one to get through to him.), **threetoedsloth **(All I'll say is that Draco isn't going to be accepted as easily as he was by Harry for most), **kamahpfan **(ooh, those issues will come up big time in here, I'm glad you're looking forward to them. You'll just have to see my plans for all my characters as the story slowly unfolds), **Wesley **(yes I am an evil person who enjoys throwing cliffies out there and watching people walk straight into them, or off of them. Don't worry, there will definitely be much of Sev and Draco in this story), **Rocky235 **(lol, no poor Harry doesn't get much in the way of breaks from all the stuff he has to deal with, but that's what makes the story!), **Agnes, Romm, GrimmyD, Shawn Picket, Earthmom ** (lol, yeah, I have a tendency of going through periods of updating regularly, on certain days and such, and then going through periods of very random updating.  My max between updates is 2 weeks, but I'll update sooner if my reviewers motivate me to do so, or if I have the time, which I don't seem to have much of these days.), **Dra, Not a Muggle, Crystal113, ParanoiaIn2005 **(lol, I'm glad I caught you unaware!  Lol, never fear, much H/D friendship stuff in Flawed. Trust me, I pretty much have everything in this fic planned out, except for perhaps a few scenes I may add in if I think of something.), **Savoy Truffle, Fiery Ferret of Doom **(you know what?  I think you just characterized exactly what their relationship is right now, while I've been trying so hard to explain it to some people.  You've got it completely pegged. Wow, you beat me in the horrible at science category!  Impressive!), **Molly Morrison, Tatshing, bast4 **(why thank you!  I try. I can't answer your questions, but don't worry, they will be answered), **gizachick, SeparatriX **(lol, as much as I love H/D slash, this fic won't be one.  Maybe one day, but right now I really want to make this an H/G one.  I really don't think there are enough good H/G fics out there, so I wanted to put this one out there. Angel74 has a great H/D fic though, if you don't mind a lot of angst.  And there's one under my favorites that's awesome as well.  But hey, I do delve into their relationship a lot, so you can just pretend it's slash!), **biblios, David, kneh13, HG/HrRFan4ever **(I love grilled cheese!  Anyways, I loved Ella Enchanted the book, but the movie was so different and random that I didn't really like it.  The book was so much better!), and** HappiGoLucki616**


	6. The Apothecary

**Author's Note**:  Hey all!  Ahh, okay, this week I'm starting AP exams.  It's quite frightening.  I'm taking two English ones.  I also have prom coming up soon, which has brought along with it some random drama.  Obviously, I have a bit of a busy schedule, but I'm going to try to get the next chapter out soon, especially if I get a lot of reviews for this one, hint hint.  I've been really busy lately babysitting and doing grunt work for a real estate company (stuffing envelopes, gah!), but hey, at least I'm getting some money!  But anyways, wish me good luck for my exams and also for prom (my ex-boyfriend's going to be there and I have to make a fabulous impression. Lol)

            Also, thank you so much to my newish, most-time beta Senri, who's looked over several chapters from Flawed Perfection. He is great about me coming to him with my random chapters in the middle of the night and having him use his wonderful knowledge of grammar and spelling and other HP facts and helps me catch such random stuff.  I don't know how he does it.  Plus, he works around my neurotic, perfectionist personality, and deals with my little neurotic habits with an incredible amount of patience.  Do you all know he is forced to report to me every change he makes and has to deal with me arguing with him about the smallest details that you all probably don't notice anyways?  Senri, you're awesome!  And once again, no, Ginny is not doing a strip tease for Senri the house-elf.

            All right, on with the show!  Please review!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"What the heck are those?" Harry asked as he walked into Draco's room to find the blonde holding strange long pointy things.

"These are fencing foils," Draco said dramatically.  

Harry looked at him in bewilderment.

"You want to make a fence out of foil?  I don't think those look like they'd make a great fence, Draco."

The blonde rolled his eyes.  "Fencing is a sport for the civilized, obviously you wouldn't be familiar with it," he said with a smirk.  Harry pulled a face at him.  "It's like sword fighting, but with these.  I'd teach you with real swords, but I doubt our godfathers would be really happy if one of us lopped off the other's head.  Catch," he called, tossing one to Harry who deftly caught it. 

"So you're going to teach me to fence?" Harry asked excitedly, swishing the foil around in the air.

"Yes.  I feel it's my duty to teach you some sort of culture.  Now I don't have any of the protective gear, so you're going to have to be really careful about not gouging out my eye, because I assure you, if you do, I'm taking one of yours to replace it."

The next several hours were spent with Draco teaching Harry the art of fencing.  Harry was a fast learner at all the movements, blocks, jabs and whatnot, but Draco kept informing him that he lacked the graceful poise that Draco had.  The Slytherin kept frowning and told Harry he looked like a pirate in a sword fight.  Harry, unfortunately for Draco, thought this was a much cooler way to look than the prim and proper standard.   

"You're hopeless," Draco declared at one point.  

Harry just grinned at him.  "Well, I still seem to be a bit difficult for you to beat," he pointed out.

"That's because you don't follow the etiquette standards of fencing," Draco exclaimed in annoyance. 

"Well, this is good for you then.  You already know how to fight people who follow the etiquette, and now you can learn how to fight people who don't, a.k.a. me," Harry said, swishing the fencing foil around in the air so he could hear the satisfying whoosh sound. 

"All right, let's go again.  And this time, keep that thing out of the general vicinity of my head," Draco warned.  

"Ay ay, captain," Harry said with a smirk.  

"En guarde," Draco said, and the two rested the tips of their fencing foils against each other's.  "And…fence!"

Immediately, the two began fencing.  The foils clanged together.  While Draco's face was cool and passive, Harry's flipped between being screwed up with concentration to laughing with joy each time he felt he did something especially cool.

The two shuffled as they dueled, so they ended up near the back steps of Snape Manor.  Draco smirked and threw his foil up in the air.  Harry was distracted with watching the foil sail over his head.  Draco dodged by Harry and darted up the three stairs, deftly catching the foil with a smug expression.

"Whoa, that was a wicked move!" Harry exclaimed in awe.  Ducking as Draco swung at him.

"Of course," Draco said smugly.  Harry swiped at the blonde's feet, but Draco jumped to avoid it and shuffled backwards into the house, Harry following him the whole way, foils clanging.

The two made their way into the living room where Snape was reading.  The Potions professor looked up with a raised eyebrow as the two boys entered the room.

"Not on the…" he protested with a wince as Harry jumped up onto the couch to gain the advantage of height.  "Off the couch!" he snapped.  

Harry saluted him and stepped up onto the back of the couch and jumped off, followed by Draco who walked up the couch and jumped off, swiping at Harry who deftly blocked him.  

Harry spun around and clinked foils with Draco with a proud smirk.  Draco rolled his eyes.

"What?  You know that was cool," Harry said, dodging a jab from the blonde.

"For an amateur," Draco smirked.

Harry grinned, turned, and ran into the hall, Draco trailing after him.  The two resumed their sword fight in the foyer.  House elves dodged out of their way as they made their way down the hall, the clanking of their foils echoing loudly.

"Sorry!  Hey, Senri!  Oops, sorry Bibs." Harry apologized as the house elves scurried out of the way. 

Draco looked at him with a raised eyebrow.  Sev was polite to house elves, unlike anyone at Malfoy Manor, but it always boggled him that Harry was actually friendly with them.  He had learned the names of quite a few of the ones in Snape Manor and always asked how they were.  The house elves were very fond of him.

The two backed up into the dining room.  The house elves raced in after them and quickly grabbed away all the breakable things.

"Thanks guys!" Harry called.  Draco stepped onto a chair and jumped up on the table.  Harry ducked a swipe of Draco's foil and raced to the other end of the long wooden table, quickly climbing up.

"Kind of familiar," Draco mused as they clashed foils again.  It was oddly reminiscent of the time they dueled on stage in their second year.  

"Yeah, maybe I should get Lockhart over here to give me some more of his wonderful advice," Harry said sarcastically as the two circled around each other as they dodged and jabbed. "Have any snakes up your sleeves?"

"Why, you want to have a chat with one?" Draco smirked.  "That's really unfair by the way.  You get the coolest Slytherin talent and you're not even in Slytherin!"

"Well, let's just say that little talent doesn't exactly go over big with the general public."

"It would with snakes," Draco pointed out.  Harry chuckled.  Draco feinted up and when Harry brought his foil up to block it, he switched and jabbed it into Harry's chest, sending the dark-haired boy crashing down. 

Harry landed flat on his back on the table and dropped his foil off the side.  The wind was knocked out of him and it took him a second to regain his senses.  

"Ow," he moaned with a chuckle.  "I think you win." 

Draco offered his hand and helped Harry to his feet.  They shook hands to conclude the duel and climbed off the table before Snape could find them there.  

"I think I'm done for the day," Harry announced, rubbing his sore chest that had now been jabbed hard with the fencing foil three times.  

The house elves reset the table and one announced that dinner would be served shortly.

Draco decided that Harry would be staying for dinner.  The house elves eagerly nodded their heads and set an extra place at the table.  

When the boys were done getting cleaned up, they came down and entered the dining room.  Harry stared in wide-eyed awe at the dinner table, which was covered by a fancy table clothes.  Every place was set with far too much silverware, in Harry's opinion.  Snape was already seated at the head of the table with the Prophet open in front of him.  He was shaking his head with a scowl as he was reading it. 

Suddenly, Harry, who hadn't been looking where he was going, ran into something very solid.  There was a loud crash as Harry and the house elf he had run into fell to the ground, along with the tray of condiments the house elf had been carrying.  

Snape and Draco exchanged a look and rolled their eyes.

"Oh my God, Senri, I'm so sorry!" Harry apologized to the house elf.  He crawled around on the floor picking up the things he had knocked over.  

"Harry Potter mustn't worry about it, sir.  Senri will clean it, sir," the house elf assured him.  

"No, here, let me help.  Here's all the, um, stuff," he said, setting all the salt and peppershakers and small bowls back on the tray.  With his hands, he began scooping a pile of some sort of thick sauce from the floor onto the tray.  A bunch of other house elves ran over and insisted that Harry didn't have to help, while he insisted that he wanted to and that he was sorry for being so clumsy.

"Harry," Snape snapped.  Harry looked up from the fray apologetically.  Snape shook his head.  "Just…sit," he said exasperatedly.  Draco sniggered.

"Smooth one," he commented.  Harry blushed and sat down.  

A house elf ran up and gave him a moist towel to clean his hands, which were now covered in sauce.  Harry quickly got his hands clean and handed the towel back to the house elf, apologizing once again.

"Who knew that we'd get dinner _and_ entertainment by inviting you over?" Draco said with smirk.

"Guess I'm not quite used to the whole high-class dinner thing yet."

Suddenly there was a house elf at his side dishing food onto his plate.  Harry looked up and saw that there were house elves at the others' sides as well.  Snape was asking Draco about how he was coming along with his summer homework.  Both were ignoring those serving them except for an occasional 'thank you' from Snape and awkward thanks from Draco, who wasn't used to even acknowledging house elves. 

"Senri, what is all this stuff?" he whispered as the house elf placed a slab of spice-covered meat on his plate.

"This, Harry Potter sir, is ostrich meat.  The soup is a bouillabaisse, which is a French fish stew.  The salad contains tossed spinach leaves, tomato, cucumber, goat cheese, and a vinaigrette dressing.  The pasta has angel hair noodles and…"

"Actually," Harry interrupted as politely as he could, "you know, I don't think it's a good idea to tell me anymore.  Thanks, Senri," Harry said, looking at the food apprehensively as the house elf bowed and left.  Why did rich people eat such weird food?

A house elf handed him a material napkin.  Harry thanked him and placed it beside his plate without paying much attention.  He grabbed a fork and looked at it confusedly.  It was tiny and only had two prongs.  He supposed it was another rich people thing.  Maybe it was so they would take smaller bites and look classier or something. 

Harry tried using it with the pasta, but failed miserably on getting any to stay on the tiny fork.  He found something small on his plate and figured it would be easier to start with that.  He poked the foreign substance with the tiny fork and popped it into his mouth.  He chewed…and kept chewing.  It tasted like rubber.  

When the other two were distracted, Harry quickly spit the thing out into his hand and put it back on his plate, hiding it under the ostrich meat.  He wished he had a paper napkin to spit things out in and wipe his hands on, not wanting to get the material one dirty.  

"Not a fan of the escargot?" Snape asked suddenly.  Harry looked up guiltily to find Snape watching him with a raised eyebrow. 

"Er…" Harry started, trying to figure out how to avoid insulting anyone. 

"Yes?"

"Um…I uh…"

"Well, spit it out," Snape said snappishly.

"Already did," Harry said with an embarrassed grin.

Draco burst out laughing. 

"Did you actually try it, or did one of the house elves tell you what it was?" Snape asked.

"No I actually tried it.  It was quite…chewy.  Why, what is it?" Harry asked warily.

"Escargot is French for snail," Snape informed him.  

Harry looked at him blankly for a moment before realizing what Snape was saying.  His face quickly paled a few shades.

"You're joking," he said in horror.

"Do I ever joke?" Snape asked.

"That's a snail?" Harry gulped pointing at another one.

"Yes."

"You eat things that leave slime trails when they move?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Well, they don't exactly move anymore," Draco pointed out. "How have you not tried escargot?"

"Well, I've done quite a bit of gardening in my day, and you know, I've never once thought about picking up a snail and eating it.  Strange how that happened," Harry said, pushing the rest of the strange food around on his plate.  He forced himself to eat the rest. 

'_You've gone up against Death Eaters.  You can do this.  Cavemen ate weird stuff like this, you can too_,' he thought in a silent pep talk with himself.  He liked some of the things on his plate, but for the most part, he wasn't used to the intense flavors and strange tastes of the food.  He would take a meal put together by Mrs. Weasley over this any day, but he politely made sure to at least try everything.  While he ate, he imagined with amusement the well-dressed table being covered with elegant platters of hamburgers and hotdogs.  He would love having the two nervously ask him what the hotdogs were exactly and telling them that nobody really knew for sure, but it was better not to ask. 

Suddenly he realized that Snape was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Harry, hold up your fork," he instructed.  Harry warily showed it to him.  Draco burst out laughing and Snape rolled his eyes.

"Are you having a difficult time eating with that?" Snape asked with an undertone of amusement.  

"Well, yes actually, quite difficult in fact.  It's a bit smaller than what I'm used to," he said awkwardly.

"Well then why not use one of the other forks that are a bit bigger?" Snape asked.

Harry looked at him confusedly and looked down near his plate.  He lifted up his napkin and blushed to see four other forks there.

"Oh, whoops?" he said with a sheepish grin. "But honestly, why are there five forks?  I only need one."

Two etiquette mess-ups and one spill later, Harry was proclaimed an official dining disaster.  

***

"Harry…Harry wake up…"

In his semi-conscious state, Harry finally realized someone was there, calling his name.  He quickly opened his eyes and squinted through the darkness.  Without his glasses and with the sleep in his eyes, he could only see the general shape of a person.  He _could _see that he was indeed in his bed where he was supposed to be at this time of night.

"Siri?  Is somefing a matter?" he asked, not awake enough yet to form words that could be truly classified as belonging to the English language. 

Glasses were placed gently on his face and his godfather's face showed up more clearly.  The ex-convict's face, however, was not filled with worry.  Instead, Sirius looked rather excited.  

"Come on, Har, out of bed.  You can stay in your pajamas, but put on your cloak and some shoes," he instructed.

"Are we going somewhere?" Harry asked as he sluggishly followed the directions. 

Sirius grinned at him, pulling the top blankets off Harry's bed and gathering them into his arms. "You'll see," he said mysteriously.

Harry followed him from the room confusedly.  

"Padfoot?" he questioned, but the Animagus just gestured for him to follow.  

The two walked out the front door and Harry broke out into an excited grin.  There was a motorcycle parked out front.

"Sirius?  Is that your old motorcycle?  The one that flies?" Harry asked excitedly.

"The one and only, just got it back.  Hagrid had stored it away somewhere in the dungeons, but he dragged it back out for me," Sirius said proudly, securing the rolled-up blankets to the back. "And we're going to take it for a cruise."

"It's two o'clock in the morning," Harry reminded him.

"I know.  I have something to show you.  Show a little faith, Harry," Sirius said as he got on the bike and put his helmet on.  "Climb on behind me."

Harry eagerly got on behind Sirius, never having been on a motorcycle before.

"All right, hold on tight," Sirius warned before starting up the engine.  Harry wrapped his arms around his godfather, and held on even tighter as Sirius took off. 

They sped along the dirt road for a few minutes before Sirius popped a wheelie and flew the bike up into the air.  

The sensation was different from flying a broom and more like riding Buckbeak.  It made a difference to not have control of what he was flying on.  Harry breathed in the cold air and looked down over the landscape below.  They were definitely passed the wards around the lighthouse now, so Harry had never been allowed to fly out over the trees and fields like this.  He liked the sensation and hoped that one day, Sirius would teach him how to drive his bike.

"Oh look," Sirius said with amusement, "Buckbeak's decided to join us."  

Harry looked to his left and grinned.  Sure enough, the Hippogriff had left the pen at the Lighthouse to fly beside them.  Harry was glad he was on the motorcycle rather than on Buckbeak.

Sirius finally brought the bike down on the top of a tall hill.  Buckbeak continued to circle around the hill, content to be with some company while he was out flying.  The hippogriff had grown very fond of the two and didn't like going far from the Lighthouse when the two were at home.  

Sirius pulled the blankets off the back and laid one down for the two to sit on.  Sirius plopped down on the blanket and lied back, sticking a pillow under his head and pulling a blanket over him to protect him from the chill of the gusts of wind.  Harry looked at him curiously before following suit.

"Siri?  What are we doing exactly?" Harry asked warily.

"Just watch," he said mysteriously, gesturing toward the sky.

Harry lied back and watched the black blanket of night above him.  

"See that star right there?" Sirius asked, pointing to one.  "That's Sirius, the dog star," he said with a grin.  "Best damn star in the sky."

"Wow, it's really big.  It must represent your ego," Harry teased.

Suddenly, a star shot across the sky.

"Siri, did you see that?  A shooting star!" Harry said excitedly.

Sirius grinned in a knowing way.  "Just keep watching."

Suddenly another one shot across, followed quickly by another. 

Harry watched mystified as more and more streaks of light filled the sky.  Soon there were almost a thousand shooting stars a minute.

"I've never seen a meteor shower before," Harry said in awe.  

"Well, hopefully it won't be your last.  The good ones are rare, but I know someone who's an astronomer who used to send me owls every time there was a good one we could see.  Once my name got cleared, I contacted him and he promised to start owling me again," Sirius said, watching the mystifying show of nature above him.  "This is one of the best parts of the Lighthouse.  It's away from all the lights of civilization, so you can really see the stars at night.  So what do you think?"

"I've never seen something so amazing," Harry said in wonder.  "It's like magic."

Sirius looked over at him in surprise.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Your mother said the exact same thing when James and I showed her one for the first time.  I mean, almost those exact same words," Sirius said with a wistful smile.

"Really?" Harry asked quietly.  He knew that Sirius, consciously or unconsciously, compared Harry to James a lot.  It was nice to be compared to his mother instead.  When he was compared to his mother, it felt like something to be proud of, rather than something to compete with.

"Yeah.  Let's see, it was right after she found out she was pregnant with you and we were saying that the meteor shower was really the universe celebrating it with her.  I mean, it was a perfect coincidence that the two events happened to coincide.  It was at a time where Peter had been gone a lot, probably at Death Eater meetings, but anyways, he wasn't there.  It was the one time I ever let anyone, including James, drive my motorcycle, or even let him be on it without me there.  He drove, with Lily on back, since we all were so concerned about her safety with you in her belly."

Harry smiled shyly, soaking in the fact that they had all seemed to care about him so much at that time.

"Moony and I flew on brooms.  When we got there, we laid out blankets to lie on, just like this," he said, gesturing to the two of them. "Lily and James lied next to each other, of course, and during the entire thing, they both had their hands on Lily's stomach and kept glancing down at it, as if you were suddenly going to pop out of it."  

The two chuckled.  Sirius looked at Harry regretfully and sighed.

"You were the best thing they ever did, and they knew it even back then.  I wish they could be here now.  It could have been the same scene as it was back then, but with you at their side," he said with a sad smile before going back to watching the sky.

Harry swallowed hard, imagining the scene and how wonderful the imagined scene would be if it were real.

"Well, at least part of it's real.  We're here and that's a big improvement on last summer," Harry said softly.  He peaked over at Sirius anxiously out of the corner of his eye.  He hadn't planned doing so, but he had just given Sirius a perfect opportunity to bring up what had happened with the Dursleys.  But Sirius was too wrapped up in his memories to notice.

"They would have been really proud of you," Sirius said quietly.  He wasn't good at the emotional conversations, as was made quite obvious with the awkwardness each time he said something sentimental.  Because of this, the comment both really touched Harry, and suddenly made him not want Sirius to catch on to his reference to the Dursleys.  He wanted so badly for Sirius's words to be true.

***

"Aw Sev, come on.  Why can't we go to the Quidditch shop while you go to the apothecary?" Draco whined. 

"Because I said so.  Now stop whining," Snape said with authority.

Harry rolled his eyes at Draco's pouting.  The blonde saw this and glared at the offending Gryffindor as they walked in after the Potions master.  Snape had taken the two to Diagon Alley for a few hours.  The two had been excited to go until they discovered that the main purpose of the trip was to get potions ingredients so that Snape could start tutoring them for next year's potions class.  Draco blamed Harry for this turn of events, since it had been the Gryffindor who had first admitted that he didn't understand the summer homework.  It was true that Draco didn't understand it either, but he would have rather left that revelation until later in the summer, knowing how the Potions master would jump upon the opportunity to teach them Potions.

"Now I want you two to find ten potions or ingredients that you don't know about and be prepared to tell me their names and any information it gives on the label. 

The two boys gaped at him momentarily.

"Evil!" Draco announced accusingly. 

"Thank you.  Now off with you two," Snape said before walking off to find the ingredients he needed.  The two boys walked off grumbling about sadistic Potions masters.

"You're right.  He _does_ need a girlfriend, desperately," Draco said as he began taking notes off a jar of some green, flaky substance labeled _Rezlibats_.  He was referring to a conversation they had had a few days before, where they had come to the decision that Snape needed a life besides his potions, as much as the idea disturbed them.  

He paused, waiting for a response.  When he didn't receive one, he looked up curiously.  "Harry?"

The boy in question was at the end of the aisle, peeking around the edge and watching something with interest.

"Harry?" he asked again with a raised eyebrow.  

The Gryffindor turned to him and motioned for him to come.  Draco crossed his arms in protest, not used to taking orders, only giving them, but curiosity got the better of him and he walked over to Harry who was back to watching whatever had grabbed his attention.

"What is it?" he asked, not seeing anything particularly unusual.

"Shh.  Look there.  See that blond woman?  That's the one," Harry said matter-of-factly. 

"Her?  Why her?" Draco asked, trying to get a closer looked at the woman.  She had long, blond hair and blue eyes.  Light freckles were splattered across her nose and cheeks.  Draco suspected she might be Irish.  "She doesn't exactly look like Sev's type."

"Trust me; she's the one.  Watch Professor Snape," Harry said quietly.  

Draco looked to his godfather who was examining labels on jars, occasionally sticking one in his basket.

"I don't see…" he started, but just then he noticed Snape's eyes flick over to the woman who was now conversing with the shop owner.  "No way," he said, mystified.  

"You know, an apothecary is really the perfect place to find a girlfriend for him, if you think about it," Harry pointed out. 

"That's so sad," Draco said. "We even have to pick out his girlfriends in a potions shop.  He really needs a life."

"I've got an idea.  Let's get those ten ingredient things done with quickly."

Draco nodded and the two rapidly picked bottles off the shelves and jotted down notes, intermittently checking to make sure the woman was still there.

As the woman went up to pay, Snape found the boys and announced that it was time to go.  They got in line behind the blonde who grabbed her bags and, after telling the shopkeeper to have a nice day, turned to leave.

Harry watched the woman out of the corner of his eye and stepped back, crashing right into her, sending her bags to the floor. 

He whirled around and put his hands over his mouth.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed, bending down to help her pick up the bottles that were now rolling everywhere.  

The woman chuckled.  "Oh don't worry, you're talking to a certified walking disaster.  I crash around into people like a crazed Bludger," she said with a warm smile.

Harry glanced back at Snape who looked ready to kill him.  He cast a desperate look at Draco, who thought quickly.

"Hey Sev, what's this?" Draco asked, picking up a fallen bottle.  

"Merpeople scales," he announced after a glance, looking vaguely impressed.  "They're used in very complex potions."

"Yes, well, it's a bit of a hobby of mine to brew potions, well _attempt _to at least.  I've been attempting to make this new invisibility potion featured in this potions magazine I subscribe to, but it unfortunately keeps exploding."

"The Lucent Draught?" Snape asked in surprise.  The woman stood up with her bags now full with potions once again.  She looked excited.

"Yes!  Have you heard of it?"

"Yes.  It doesn't specify in the article, but remove the potion from the heat before mixing in the scales," he said in a much gentler tone than he used in class.  He, himself, sounded more animated, eager to talk to someone who was interested in his favorite hobby. 

The woman looked as if she had just had an epiphany.

"Of course!  Hot Diminitiv can't mix with the scales!  I can't believe you caught that!" she exclaimed.  Snape couldn't take her eyes off her.

"Well, he _is_ the Potions master at Hogwarts," Harry informed her.  Snape shot him a glare and Harry just grinned innocently.  

"Harry," he snapped warningly, but the woman just looked at him in awe.

"You _teach_ Potions?  That's amazing!  From what I hear, you must be extremely skilled to work there," she said warmly.

"He is," Draco said with pride.

The woman shifted her bags and held out her hand to Snape.  "I'm Laura McCormick."

Snape awkwardly shook it, looking oddly uncomfortable.

"Severus Snape."

The woman smiled and then turned to the boys for introductions.

"Draco Malfoy…er…I mean Snape," he corrected himself awkwardly, casting a questioning look at Snape who nodded reassuringly.  The woman gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I read about you in the Prophet.  That was a very brave thing you did, especially for Harry Potter, if you're enemies with him as the article says," she said kindly. 

Draco cast an awkward look at Harry.

"Yeah, well things change," he said with a shrug.

"Yeah, Draco and I are friends now," Harry added.  The woman turned toward him questioningly.  "Oh, I'm Harry…Harry Potter," he said slightly wary of the woman's reaction.

Laura looked a bit surprised.  "Oh, well you seem very down to earth for someone with your fame."

Harry thought Snape looked slightly disappointed, expecting the woman to pay all her attention to the boys, but suddenly Laura's expression turned to one of shock and she whirled around to face Snape.

"You're the one that invented the Wolfsbane Potion," she exclaimed with a gasp.  "I knew your name sounded familiar!"

Harry looked at Snape in shock as well.  How had he not been informed of that?

"Oh well, yes actually.  About ten years ago," he said indifferently, but Harry could tell he was flattered at the recognition.

"That is amazing.  The only potion I've ever managed to make was by accident and its only function was to turn everything it touched black."

"How useful," he said sarcastically with a raised eyebrow.

The boys winced at the man's crass sense of humor, thinking this would be the end of Laura.

But the blonde just grinned.  "But of course!  I could market it as a decorating tool for vampires."

Snape smirked appreciatively at the joke.

"Well, it was nice to meet you," said Laura, preparing to leave.

"Wait!" Draco blurted out desperately.

"We were just about to go get some ice cream.  Do you want to come with us?" Harry quickly improvised.  

"Yeah Sev, you promised," Draco added.

Snape looked at the two as if they had lost their minds, but quickly changed his expression when Laura turned to him.  

"Yes, you should come," he said awkwardly.

Laura grinned and nodded.  "I'd love to."

Snape quickly paid for the potions ingredients and the four walked to the ice cream parlor, the two adults in front, walking side by side, immersed in conversation about potions.

Draco and Harry trailed behind congratulating themselves.

The four eventually sat down at a small table with their ice cream, Harry and Laura with messy cones, and Draco and Snape with more dignified bowls.  

They were all delighted with Laura's sense of humor and her appreciation of Snape's sarcastic one.  

The conversation eventually rolled around to Draco and Harry's favorite topic.

"So, Laura, do you like Quidditch?" Harry asked eagerly.

She chuckled at the question.  "You know, I never really got into the sport, but my daughter's crazy about it.  I took her with some friends of mine to a match and she fell in love with it.  She may only be four, but she knows what she likes."

The other three froze.  Draco shot Harry a panicked look.

"Are you married?" Harry asked in a curious tone.  

"Was.  When my daughter, Anna, was born, her father decided he didn't want to be a dad and ran off with some young knock-out.  He threatened to try to get full custody of Anna unless I gave him the house, so I let him have it.  Best deal I ever made."

"He left you?  What an idiot!" Snape blurted out bluntly.  Laura smiled at him.  

Yet after Laura's announcement that she had a kid, the boys could tell Snape's attitude toward her had changed slightly.

Harry whispered for Draco to distract the woman, and he convinced her to buy some ice cream for her daughter.  The two blondes went back inside to pick out a tub.

"Ask her to dinner," Harry hissed to Snape as soon as they left.

"She has a kid," he hissed right back. 

"So what?  You like her!" Harry insisted.  "Besides, you do too, remember?  He's named Draco, extremely blond, about yay tall," he said gesturing above his head. 

 "Don't be a smart ass, Draco is different and you know it.  He's a teenager and though teenagers have a whole set of their own difficulties, they're generally past the sticky fingers, sticking everything in their mouths, babbling nonsensically phase," he said.  "I'm not good with kids.  They hate me and I'm not fond of them, especially that young.  They just whine, cry and smell," he said with distaste.

"When have you ever been around kids?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Never, because kids and I are not a good mix," he snapped.

"How would you know then if you've never been around them?" Harry challenged. 

Snape scowled at Harry but was at a loss for a reply.

"Just try it because you fancy her and let's face it, you need a life," he said before biting off a piece of his cone.

"Watch it, Harry," Snape said threateningly.  

"It's true," Harry said matter-of-factly.

"I _have_ a life, thank you," Snape snapped.

"Being stuck in a potions lab all day does not count.  You like her, Draco likes her, its perfect.  You always tell me to put in some effort.  As my professor, you need to set a good example," Harry pushed.  

"I always knew you were a cheeky brat," Snape growled.

"And I always knew you had some brains, now use them!" Harry hissed.  

"Boy do you have guts," Snape said menacingly, but Harry wasn't affected by it. "Anyways, she might say no."

"Of course she might say no, but you were a spy for how many years?  I think you've taken bigger risks than asking someone to dinner."

"Somehow, facing the Dark Lord is easier than this," Snape admitted with a scowl.

"Cheers to that," Harry said with a smirk.  The pair looked up to see the two blondes coming back. 

"Ask her and tell her to bring her daughter," Harry said once last time before Draco and Laura got back.

"Well, I guess I better get going before my pint of ice cream melts.  It was lovely to meet you all.  I hope to run into you again sometime, Severus," she said, pushing in her chair.

Harry shot Snape a pointed look.

"Would you and your daughter like to have dinner at my home sometime?" he asked, sounding uncharacteristically nervous.  

She looked at him in mild surprise.  "I would love that," she said warmly.

"Are you free tonight around seven?"

"Fantastic.  Are you connected to the Floo network?" she asked.

The two adults exchanged information so Snape could set his fireplace to allow her in, since it generally only allowed a few connections for his and Draco's protection.  

When Laura Disapparated, Snape sat back down and groaned.  The two boys sat down with him.

"Come on Sev, it'll be great," Draco said encouragingly.

"I can't believe you two got me into this.  She's going to expect her kid and I to get along.  What a disaster.  This is going to be like Longbottom with a cauldron."

Draco laughed loudly at this while Harry looked at them disapprovingly.

"Neville tries really hard, you know.  And he was loads better last year."  Before an argument began, he shook his head.  "But let's not get off topic.  My friend Kota babysits all the time for little kids, so I'll go do kids research."

Snape just groaned, and mashed up a bit of ice cream with a scowl.

"Er, Sev?  When was the last time you went on a date?" Draco asked cautiously.

Snape lifted his head and glared at his godson.  "I've been involved with other things," he said indignantly.

"Sev?"

Snape just groaned again, putting his head into his hands.

The man mumbled something.

"Er…what was that?" Draco asked.

"I said, about ten years ago," he said with a glare that threatened a swift death if either made any jokes. 

Draco gulped.

"That's okay, Sirius hasn't been on one for sixteen years," Harry said reassuringly.

"He's been in prison and on the run from the ministry," Snape pointed out snappishly.

"True…." Harry said, trying to think of some assurance.  "Well, I've never been on one."

"I have," Draco announced proudly.  "Many times, actually."

The two brunettes glared at him.

"What?" he asked innocently.

Snape and Harry rolled their eyes.  

"You're fifteen.  I'm twenty years older than you."

"Well, now's a good a time as any.  And who cares that you've been busy with other things for the last ten years?  Laura obviously likes you so you'll be fine.  And I'll find out about the whole kid thing and Draco can help you with what to have for dinner and all that junk."

"This is humiliating," Snape groaned.

"Don't worry Sev, we all have to start somewhere," Draco said, patting his godfather's back.

Snape practically snarled at the blonde.

"Er…Dray, I don't think you're really helping," Harry said quietly.

"I know.  It's hilarious, isn't it?" he asked, sounding quite entertained.  

"Draco, do you want to be cleaning the manor for the entire rest of the summer?"

"Touchy," Draco said with a smirk.

"Fine.  Draco, you helped get me into this, so you're going to help me get through this."

"Sev, I've been to more parties and dinners in my life than I can count.  I've got food and clothes covered," he said smugly. 

"All right, let's do this," Harry said, popping the last bit of cone into his mouth.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

A/N: Hey all, I've had some people ask when the plot's going to start.  My answer's simply that it already has, you guys just might not know it yet. Lol.  You'll get a better idea of what I mean next chapter.  I know I haven't really made a specific plotline obvious by now, but I have to go through a lot of set up before I start getting into things, and the main conflict will come abruptly, but a bit later.  Don't worry, there is a plot to this, I guarantee it.  Oh and if anyone has any quotes they like, serious or funny, please send them my way so I can add them to my quote collection.  Thanks!  Now pop me a review and I'll try to get the next chapter out in about a week.  

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

**Wiccan PussyKat: **well, PK: Master of Sleuthery, mmm…Harry in swim trunks.  Lovely image there.  I'm glad I've made you skeptical.  It's a good trait to have with this fic, though I won't say if you're right or not about this one.  I'm glad you're seeing how I'm slowly setting things up.  Many think I'm just being random. I don't like D/Hr fics either, but I like embarrassing the little Slytherin.  He's so fun.  Hey, you're the one getting yourself at the top with your awesome reviews!  Lol, I know what you mean about the klutziness.  I'm horrible.  And the greatest is that I always trip over invisible things and then apologize to whatever I tripped over, even if it's not human.  It just slips out!  Ooh, good guessing, and we'll have to see if you're right or not.  

**Myr Halcyon: **lol, yeah, Sparknotes have saved my butt many a time. Lol, I must admit I don't like D/Hr or D/G fics, I just thought it would be funny to put that side note in there to show that Draco is subject through the same crazy crushes that many of the characters in here are subject to. Lol, no familial relationships between the Malfoys and Voldie, but I like the speculation.  It's what makes my job fun. 

**Eternally*Mine: **thanks for the quotes, they were awesome!  I love the skydiving one!  Lol, that would make for a very short fic if I killed Harry right then.  Good call with the Harry killing the dark lord thing, I'm glad you're starting to see you're looking below the surface on some of this seemingly random stuff I'm putting out there right now.  Well, I can't really answer your questions, but I _can_ tell you that next chapter will be the first attempt at a get-together with Draco and the Weasleys.  No prob about randomness in your review, I love it!  

**LadyAbbeyBartlet: ** Well, about the fifth book, you're definitely in agreement with my beta, and most people I know.  What can I say, I'm strange like that. Lol.  Eloise likes to rant, but definitely not as the same things as Hermione.  Mione's more into facts and morals and house elf rights, Eloise is more into romance and philosophizing about things like fate and such.  Hermione's more of a text book whereas Eloise is more of a romance novel. Lol.  That's the best I can come up with.  I love grilled cheese, as you might be able to guess, lol.  Oh, luckily, I found out that Rowan Atkinson playing Voldemort is just a rumor, but he's the guy that played Mr. Bean and was in Love Actually and Rat Race.  I will convert!  Muahahahaha…right.  Lol, I thought the kissing thing in book 5 was cute just because it was Harry's first kiss, and it was so awkward (which first kisses really are!).  I loved how he described it as wet. LOL.  Even though I don't like Cho, it was fine with me that his first kiss was with her, since I know a lot of people, including myself, whose first kiss was definitely NOT romantic.  It would be too mushy if it had been with someone he really liked.  Okay, random story: with my friend's first kiss, when the guy stuck his tongue in her mouth, she was so surprised, she bit down!  She bit his tongue!! LOL. And I still say that my first kiss just felt like there was a nasty slug in my mouth. Moral: first kisses are NOT necessarily romantic.  Every girl I know hated her first kiss.  I'm glad JK picked up on that instead of making it all mushy with a girl Harry loved.  I need a Harry in my life. *sigh*

**BratPrincess-187 **(hey, no prob! I'm glad you like the H/D friendship.  Lol, can't spill, but that'll be coming up soon.), **Mikito, HarryandGinnyforever, Agnes, RyokoTenchi **(lol, yeah, I don't like Draco pairings with either Ginny or Hermione.  He's not going to be paired with her in this fic, I thought it would just be a funny side thing. Yeah, I did let out a lot of clues last chapter, and I'm surprised you picked up on them!  Good job!), **littlestomper **(wow, thanks!  I'm so glad you like my fics! Don't worry, I promise to finish this fic.  I'm neurotic like that. I won't be able to stop something I've started, plus, I'm addicted to the reviews.), **Maximum Poofy-Confused Queen, Fiery Ferret of Doom **(we roadtripped along the west coast of the U.S., mostly California. It was so fun!  I'm glad you like the D/H interaction, and your hunch may be right, you never know! Grilled cheese rocks!!), **Kneh13, Musicstarlover **(no, it's not slash, don't worry.  It's H/G, R/H, and a few other pairings like Snape/Laura and such that I've already made obvious.  I do like slash, but I could never write it and I promise this is not.  :), **Liz, Black-Rose1212 **(lol, thanks.  Wow you must be a fast reader!  That's over 300 pages.  I'm glad you didn't find it confusing since, you're right, there were a whole lot of characters. Thank you so much for the wonderful compliments!!  I hope you continue to like F.P. just as much.), **SillieGillie, lilynjamesAAF, waterdrifter, hedwigs-biggest-fan **(lol, love the penname!  Much Harry angst, I promise.  Doesn't it just drive you crazy when your favorite authors seem to drop off the face of the earth mid-fic?  Don't worry, I won't do that!), **Liz **(lol, you're the second to say they prefer Richard I.  I've never read it. Anyways, glad you like the fic so far!), **Lost angel92, Sailor-Knight Shadowstar **(lol)**, Fraggle-Rock-Chick **(no, I don't believe in Eloise's speech about fate, but toward the end of the fic, the subject will come up again and I'll explain, through Eloise, what I actually believe.  Gasp, it's actually like a theme! Lol. Maybe not), **rachegrint **(lol, roadtrips rock!  Glad you caught the foreshadowing!), **EriEka127, Siri Kat** (lol, maybe…), **Stellaluna Melonballer, happigolucki616, Rhyllen, Magnolia Lane **(lol, many questions, so few answers I can give.  But I'm glad you're starting to get suspicious of the characters.  There's a lot of them in this story and it's not certain that they're all good, though I won't say that for certain.), **angel74 **(Don't worry, I'll get back to the head pain very soon.  Please update your fic soon!!), **Fantagal **(lol, Harry's living in a land called denial right now), **Formerly Known as Erin, shadowsfriend, Phoenix Marauder, Lourdes, Mayhem El-Diablo, Fairy, Evil Unicorn **(lol, I have a thing with backwards words.  If you want, go back and look at the name of the ingredient Draco's looking at in the Apothecary and read it backwards. Nothing that exciting, but if you ever see a word like a potions ingredient that's incredibly random, it might be something spelled backwards, sometimes with some slight alterations.), **Velith **(lol, don't worry, Sirius will play a major role, even though obviously much of the story is focusing on Snape and Draco.  I love Irish accents and that's so cool that you live there.), **Arctic Wolf2, lyss33, yellowpages, Savoy Truffle, Miss Laine **(ooh thanks!  I'm so glad to hear I'm improving.  That's what I really want!), **Crystal113, Bosson12787 **(no, Harry's powers aren't coming back. Nice try though! Lol.), **TheSerpentAndTheLion **(lol, yeah, you're right, I should have just named it questions, since all the answers just led to more questions.  But we did find out that grilled cheese is the ultimate answer to everything, lol), **Wynjara, Romm, Earthmom, Lindiel Eryn **(thank Merlin that was just a rumor. *sighs in relief*), **ParanoiaIn2005 **(lol, you always make me feel special.  I do everything for a reason, so never fear.  I always try to tie up all my loose ends, hopefully in a decently entertaining way.), **Athenakitty **(lol, I can't answer any of your questions, but you're asking good ones that will definitely be explained), **Helen, threetoedsloth, Shadow Bandit, ckat44, Kjkit, Nation El-Diablo **(lol, very true, but she just figures it'll all work out for him in the end.  We'll have to see if she's right. Dun dun dun….)


	7. Firsts and Seconds

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone. Ugh, I've been brought down by the Flu or something similar. I think it's my karma for making Harry so sick all the time in Recnac. I've now had it for a week, the longest I've ever been sick. And it seems to keep mutating, introducing new symptoms as old ones fade away. I think Sirius might have slipped something into my food in revenge for torturing Harry so much, since this thing is just unnatural, lol. Anyways, I apologize, but I'm just too wiped out to do review responses for this chapter. I have read all your reviews and thank you so much for all of them. I wish I could respond, but this happens to be one of the rare times when I'm both awake _and_ not delirious. I went to school yesterday and at one point, I forgot the names of everybody that sits around me in Econ. It was so weird. I just kept staring at people, trying to remember their names and I couldn't. I also took a chem test yesterday and you can see how that probably turned out. Lol. Well, I'm off to go cuddle up with my current best friends: the tissue box, the Vicks VapoRub, my giant teddy bear (that often doubles as a dancing partner on healthier days) and my Moulin Rouge DVD.

"Hello?" Harry called out into the Stensons' home. He had just Flooed in.

"Harry?" Kota asked, coming down the stairs. 

"Hey Kota, what do you know about four-year-olds?" he asked. 

"Why, decided to boost your maturity level up a year?" she asked with a teasing smirk.

"Oh ha ha," he said sarcastically. "But seriously. My friend's godfather is having a date with a single mother of a four-year-old girl, and she's bringing her daughter. He's never been around children in his life."

"Alright, what do you need to know?"

.

"Okay, so they're out of diapers and they run around. They can talk pretty well but don't generally follow sarcasm. They can still be a bit messy and they still need people to help dress them," Harry said following Snape around as he paced throughout the house. Draco was down talking with the house elves about what to make for dinner. 

"Dinner things, Harry, dinner things. Do they still drink out of a bottle? Do use silverware? Do they eat solid food?" he asked, sounding very stressed out.

"No on the bottle, yes on the solid food, though it might need to be cut smaller for them. And I'm pretty sure they can use silverware. Not knives, but spoons and forks I think. Though maybe you shouldn't confuse the girl by putting five forks next to her plate," he suggested with a grin. "Oh, and curse words: not good, even stuff like 'bloody' and 'hell.'"

"This isn't going to work."

"Yes it is," Harry insisted. "You're prepared. She's going to be here in about ten minutes. It'll be fine. Good luck," he said as they made their way into the living room. Harry began walking over to the fireplace.

"Where are you going?" Snape asked sternly. Harry turned around in confusion.

"Er…home?"

"Aren't you staying for dinner?" 

"I didn't know I was invited. Besides, as you've seen, I'm probably not the best person to have around for a nice dinner. I'm not really in with the whole high society behavior thing yet," he reminded the Potions master. "I'd just mess it up."

"Don't be ridiculous. You helped get me into this, you're staying," Snape said firmly. Harry blinked at him.

"Are you sure?" he asked in surprise. 

"Of course I'm sure or I wouldn't have said it. Besides, it's not going to be a fancy affair, but a casual one."

Harry looked at him incredulously. "Apparently we have different definitions of casual." 

"Well, I'm allowing you and Draco to wear Muggle clothes aren't I?" he asked as if that settled it. 

Draco chose that moment to enter the room looking pleased with himself. 

"Well, I've just checked on dinner and it's coming along perfectly. The house elves have been working on it for hours and it shows."

"Thank Merlin. Then everything should go smoothly." Snape said coolly, sounding a bit relieved. 

"Of course it will," Draco said knowingly. "I planned it, didn't I?"

Snape rolled his eyes and Harry chuckled at his friend's arrogance.

"Let me just go tell Sirius I'm staying here for dinner," Harry said. 

He quickly talked to Sirius through the fireplace, who got quite a kick out of the fact that Snape had a date until Moony pointed out that at least Snape _had _a date. That shut Sirius up. 

As seven o'clock approached, the flames in the fireplace roared to life in emerald green, and Laura stepped out, setting her daughter down on the floor of the living room. Both were dressed in light blue robes that showed off their eyes. The four-year-old girl was a carbon copy of her mother, just smaller, with larger eyes and more freckles. She stuck close to her mother, peering out from behind the woman's legs. 

"Hello Severus," she said pleasantly. "Hello Draco. Harry," she said nodding to each of the boys. The two boys greeted her in return, while Snape was looking warily at the little girl. 

"And this is my daughter Anna," she said gently patting the young girl on the head. "Anna, say hello."

"Hello," she said shyly. 

Harry looked at the other two males and seeing that they weren't going to do anything, he stepped forward. 

"Hi Anna, I'm Harry," he said, holding out a hand. The young girl giggled and shook his hand with her tiny one. "I hear you like Quidditch."

The girl smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically. Seeing that her daughter was occupied, Laura went over to talk to Snape. 

"Well, Draco and I play Quidditch. We're Seekers. Do you know what those are?"

"Yes. They're the ones that look for the Snitch," she said knowingly. "I like them."

Draco walked up to them, looking slightly unsure of himself. 

"This is Draco," Harry introduced when the Slytherin made no move to do it himself. Draco nodded at the girl and said a stiff hello, but Anna was not put off by him. 

"You have pretty hair," she said, causing Draco to look mildly startled. "It's white and shiny."

Draco smirked. 

"The girl's got good taste," he said to Harry who rolled his eyes. 

"Anna, come meet Severus," Laura called. Harry saw Snape quickly hide the horrified look that flittered across his face. 

The young girl ran over and looked up at Snape with her big blue eyes. Snape looked wary of the small child, as if she were planning to attack him. Of course, this seemed to slip right past Laura. 

"Er…hello," Snape said awkwardly, looking down at the child suspiciously. 

"Hi," she said back. "You're tall," she said bluntly, as if it were a very necessary thing to get out into the open. 

"Er…yes, well, you're short," he said awkwardly. Laura chuckled and Anna broke out into giggles, while Snape remained bewildered at what he was supposed to say to such a young child. 

A house elf popped into the room and announced that dinner was served, saving Snape from conversation with the child. As they walked to the dining room, Anna ran back to the boys and began asking questions.

"Do you have brooms?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes."

"Are they fast?"

"Yes, but Draco's is faster than mine. He has a Lightningstrike and I have a Firebolt," Harry explained. "Well, actually, it's more like two pieces of a Firebolt, but Draco lets me borrow his extra broom."

"I don't know those. Who is better?"

"I am," they both said at the same time, simultaneously shooting playful glares at one another. Anna looked between the two of them before putting her hand over her mouth and giggling. 

"Do that again. That was funny," she declared brightly.

"Maybe later," Draco said vaguely. 

"Is Sevus you're daddy?" she asked them both.

"Severus," Draco corrected.

"That's what I said," Anna insisted.

"No you didn't," Draco argued.

"Draco, are you really going to start fighting with a four-year-old?" Harry said quietly. Draco scowled at him. 

"So is he?" she asked. 

"No, he's my godfather," Draco said. 

"What's that?" she asked curiously. 

"It's someone who your parents choose to take care of you if they can't."

"And Harry is your brother, right?" she said knowingly. 

"No, he's my friend."

"No, he should be your brother," she insisted. "You look like brothers."

Harry and Draco looked at each other. Draco raised his eyebrow and Harry tried not to laugh. How the girl could think they looked related was beyond them, as they were hard-pressed to think of any two people that looked more different. 

They finally arrived at the elegant dining room. Laura exclaimed how nice it looked, as Harry's eyes grew wide, having never seen such a picturesque table. The lights were dimmed and much of the light was coming from the beautiful candelabras strategically placed at the table. House elves waited around the edges of the room, holding large covered dishes. 

Snape pulled Laura's chair out for her and Anna insisted on sitting next to Harry, who lifted her into the chair before taking his own seat in between the girl and Draco. 

After they were all seated, the house elves approached, setting out all the food, the larger dishes in the middle with appetizers surrounding it. Harry couldn't imagine the five of them being able to finish it all. He wasn't too sure about the food either, especially after his last meal at Snape Manor. None of it was recognizable to him and every dish looked very elaborate. He knew his taste buds weren't used to all the spices so he couldn't bring himself to be very excited about eating all the alien foods. 

"This is wonderful, Severus. Everything looks great. Oh calamari, I love that!" she exclaimed as everyone began to put food onto their plates. 

"What's calamari?" Harry whispered to Draco.

"Squid in fried batter," he whispered back. Harry looked at him in horror. 

"You're joking," he said hopefully.

"You are so uncultured," Draco said in response. "Just try some," he said passing the dish to Harry, who reluctantly put a couple of pieces on his plate.

Just as everyone was about to begin their meal, Anna stood up on her chair and reached across the table to grab her water. Unfortunately, the glass was too heavy and she only succeeded in knocking it over, right into the candelabra. The candles tipped over and in a flash, the tablecloth caught on fire. 

Everyone jumped up. Harry plucked up Anna out of her chair and carried her back from the table, the top of which was now completely engulfed in flames.

Anna looked at the fire in horror and began crying loudly, hugging Harry's neck and insisting repeatedly that she was sorry and that she didn't mean to. Harry patted her back and told her it was okay. 

Laura and Snape were dousing the flames with water from their wands as quickly as they could, but by the time they succeeded in putting them all out, the room was filled with smoke and the dinner was charred beyond recognition. 

They all went out into the hallway as the smoke got too bad. Snape looked flustered, Draco seemed to be in mild shock, Laura was apologizing over and over, saying that she'd pay for any damage, while Harry held the sobbing Anna to his chest, trying to comfort her saying that it was alright, that it was just an accident.

"Don't worry about it," Snape assured her, looking extremely disappointed. He called for a house elf who reluctantly told him that there was no more food, that everything they had bought and prepared was now burnt. 

"Oh Severus, I'm so sorry. Everything's ruined," Laura said in distress.

"It's okay. I should have been more prepared. Now there's nothing to eat."

Harry stepped up. "If you guys don't mind a lower class meal, and if I could use the kitchen, I could make dinner," he suggested. "I'd only need about fifteen minutes."

Laura brightened up and looked at Snape. "That would be great with me."

Snape nodded at Harry in a slight daze. 

"Alright," he said cheerfully, handing Anna to her mother. "You all go relax in the living room and I'll make you a Muggle meal." 

He darted off into the study to use the fire and quickly Flooed to the Lighthouse. 

"Harry?" Sirius asked as his godson darted through the living room into the kitchen. 

"There was a bit of a disaster with the food, so I'm doing a rescue mission," Harry called out as he loaded his arms with dry spaghetti, a big jar of marinara sauce, boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, a few sticks of butter, a spatula, a loaf of bread and a stack of cheese slices. He grabbed cans of gingerale and cranberry juice and stuck the lot of it in a big pot. 

He darted back through the living room, shouting goodbyes to Padfoot and Moony before Flooing back to Snape manor. He raced down to the kitchens, which were spectacularly large, with tons of stove burners. There were immediately two house elves at his side awaiting instruction. 

"Senri, Baz, how are you two?" Harry asked politely. The two gleefully told him they were good and asked how they could help. "All right, I need another large pots and a medium sized one. I also need a frying pan, butter, two strainers if you have them and three stirring spoons, please," he said as he began opening up packages. "Oh and a large pitcher, if it's possible."

The house elves immediately scurried off, bringing back the supplies he needed. Harry thanked them profusely, much to their delight, making them more eager to serve the friendly boy. 

He had the elves fill two of the pots with water and began preparing the meal. He made up a bunch of Macaroni and Cheese, a whole package of spaghetti and as many grilled cheese sandwiches as the serving platter would fit, cutting each into four triangles for appetizers. 

He mixed the cranberry juice and the gingerale together in the pitcher and had the house elves put the other food into nice looking dishes. 

Exactly fifteen minutes after he had left, he was walking back up to the living room, carrying the platter of sandwiches as house elves trailed behind him to carry everything else. 

As Harry had instructed, two house elves lay out a blanket on the floor and the others set the food on top of it. They lit a fire in the fireplace to eat by, but put a screen around it to make sure Anna didn't have any more accidents. 

"We're eating on the floor?" Snape asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh like an indoor picnic, how lovely!" Laura said excitedly, taking her seat on the blanket. 

"Grilled cheese!" Draco exclaimed as he saw what was on the platter that Harry set down, and immediately took his place on the blanket. 

Snape also sat down, looking slightly lost as to this new concept of eating on the floor. 

"What is that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Macaroni and Cheese. A Muggle delicacy," he joked, taking a seat as well. "Nobody can resist."

Everyone piled food on their plate, and the two adults tried the food somewhat cautiously. 

"Wow, Harry, I'm impressed. This is delicious!" Laura exclaimed.

"Mummy, I like this. Can we have this again?" Anna asked, her hands and face covered with cheese and marinara sauce. Snape looked at the mess in distaste, unnoticed by Laura, who leaned over and wiped her off with a napkin. 

Draco contently ate grilled cheese sandwiches to his heart's content. 

"Okay, I still am not fond of Muggles in general, but I must admit they have good food," Draco announced as he tried the orange noodles. 

"Harry this is excellent," Laura said. 

"Well, it wasn't hard to make or anything," Harry said with a modest shrug. He was slightly disappointed that Snape hadn't made a single comment about the food, not that he had really been expecting him to. But now he was a bit nervous that the man didn't like it, and was just eating it since it was their only option. He quickly reminded himself that Snape didn't give compliments. It would go against his moral code.

They all chatted about various things, Draco and Laura doing most of the talking. At one point, Anna crawled over to Snape and began asking him questions. While Draco and Laura were immersed in a conversation about how corrupt the ministry was, Harry watched Anna and Snape in amusement. 

"Do you like black?" Anna asked curiously.

"What?" Snape asked in annoyance.

"Your robes are black and your shoes are black and your hair is black and your socks are black," she explained all in one breath. "Do you always wear black?"

"Yes."

"So you like black," Anna stated in conclusion.

"Yes, I suppose so," Snape said cautiously.

"Why?

"Why what?"

"Why do you like black so much?"

Snape stared at her in apprehension. "Because I just do," he snapped. Anna didn't seem to pick up on the annoyed tone of the man's voice.

"You look like a vampire."

Snape scowled at her and hissed, "I do _not_ look like a vampire."

"Do you have fangs?" she asked excitedly.

"No."

"Can I see?" 

"No." 

"If a werewolf and a vampire were in a fight, who would win?"

"I don't know, what kind of question is…."

"Do you eat a lot of chocolate?" Anna interrupted.

"What? No."

"I think you do because your hair is brown like chocolate."

Snape looked at her as if she were insane.

"Do you like kids?"

"No," Snape snapped.

"Why not?"

"Because they ask too many questions," he growled menacingly, but Anna only giggled.

"You're funny."

"I am not _funny_," he said indignantly. 

"You're funny and grouchy. Do you need a nap?" she asked innocently. Harry bit back a laugh at the look of horror on Snape's face. Before he could say anything, Anna grabbed his hand and placed her palm on his. 

"You have big hands," she declared. Snape pulled his hand away with a scowl. "You teach kids, right?"

"Yes," he said with an aggravated sigh.

"Do you like it?"

"I only enjoy teaching students who are interested in learning. Unfortunately, my classes are filled with incompetent fools who wouldn't know how to make the simplest potion if their life depended on it, and _those_ students are a waste of my time."

Anna stared at him blankly for a few moments, not understanding what he had just said. "What _do_ you like?"

Snape's eyebrow shot up at the question. He wasn't asked it very often. 

"Potions."

"And?"

"And Defense Against the Dark Arts and dueling," he said in a hurried, hushed tone. 

"Do you like Draco?"

"Yes."

"Do you like Harry?"

Snape's eyes glanced up to find Harry watching them. Harry blushed guiltily and looked down at his plate. 

"Why don't you go back to your mother?" he asked the little girl, trying to shoo her away. Harry's heart sank a little at the answer. 

"Do you like my mum?" she asked curiously.

Snape looked slightly flustered. 

"Um…yes. She's a very nice person," he said quietly, looking up nervously at Laura to make sure she wasn't paying attention. 

"I mean do you want her to be your girlfriend?" the girl asked in frustration that Snape was trying to get around her questions. Harry could have sworn Snape looked a bit afraid of the girl at that moment. 

"Anna! Are you bothering Severus?" her mother asked sternly. Anna's head whipped around.

"No, I was just talking to him, really. He's my friend now," she announced. Harry quickly turned his laughter into a cough, as Snape shot him a glare. 

The rest of the night went fairly smoothly. Both Anna and Laura became quickly attached to the three males. Laura and Snape set up a proper date to the opera (Harry and Anna made faces at this, while Draco looked slightly jealous). Harry volunteered himself and Draco to look after Anna if Laura couldn't find a babysitter. Laura had to pry Anna from Snape, since she had locked onto his legs and wouldn't let go, much to Snape's surprise. 

As soon as the females were gone, the two boys looked at Snape, waiting for him to give his opinion. He did his best to ignore them.

"Well?" Draco asked impatiently.

"Ten minutes and the kid nearly burned down the manor," he scowled.

"I think she liked you," Draco teased. "You're her friend now, right?"

"Draco, you do realize there are dungeons underneath the manor," Snape said sharply. 

"So, you obviously liked Laura if you're taking her to the opera," Draco said matter-of-factly.

"If only she didn't have that _child_," he said as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. "She didn't even scold her for lighting fire to my dining room!"

"It was just an accident," Harry piped in. "Obviously, fire and four-year-olds aren't a good mix."

"I told you I didn't know about kids. Wasn't it your job to figure that sort of stuff out?" Snape snapped.

Harry blinked. "Sorry," he said defensively. "It all turned out all right in the end anyways."

"Oh yes, sitting on the floor eating low-class, Muggle food cooked up in fifteen minutes, how magical," Snape said sarcastically. 

Draco rolled his eyes at his godfather.

"Well fine then," Harry snapped, feeling stung, "I'm sorry I tried."

He stalked off with a huff down to the kitchen and began gathering up the unused food and put it back into the pot from the Lighthouse. 

Snape burst through the kitchen doors.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you it's rude to walk out in the middle of a conversation?"

"I wasn't aware we were having a conversation," Harry said coldly.

Snape looked around all the ingredients Harry was packing up.

"So did you help cook it then?" he asked casually.

Harry looked up at him with an odd expression before focusing back on gathering his things together.

"Of course I did. It's not like the house elves know how to make low-class, Muggle food," he said, mocking Snape's earlier words.

"I didn't mean it like that."

Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "There's another meaning for low-class? Or do you mean there was another meaning behind the condescending tone?"

"When did you start talking back to me?" Snape asked sternly.

Harry sighed. "Sorry," he said, picking up his pot, packed with cooking supplies, "I won't do it again, _sir_. Now if you'll excuse me…" He made to leave the kitchen.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Wait. Look, I'm…" Snape just couldn't bring himself to apologize. It was just something he didn't do. "I didn't mean it. Besides, the food wasn't that bad," he said with a lot of effort.

Harry looked over at him and sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to get an apology. It was obvious the man was stressed, and Harry knew from experienced that Snape liked to take out his anger on others. It really should be expected that the target would be Harry for a while until they hopefully got out of old patterns.

"It's okay," he said with a sigh. 

Snape looked mildly surprised that his feeble attempt to apologize had worked so easily.

"I better go. Don't worry, Laura and Anna both like you and you'll learn all about dealing with kids soon enough," Harry said with a nod before exiting the kitchen.

He ran into Draco on his way back to the living room fireplace. 

"You know Sev's just a bastard when he's stressed. He always has to complain about something," the blonde said, annoyed with his godfather. " Besides, I thought the Muggle food was great and we both know that my opinion's the only one that matters."

Harry smiled at Draco's arrogance, but didn't feel the same way. Snape's opinion _did _matter, though Harry wasn't sure why.

.

As Harry finally decided it was time to build the Quidditch pitch in the backyard of the Lighthouse, he also decided that it would be the best time to start trying to get Draco to interact with the Weasleys. 

He proposed the idea to Draco, who, after failing to convince Harry to not invite the Weasleys, promised he would try his absolute best to be well behaved. The Weasleys boys weren't too enthused about the idea but Ginny helped Harry talk them into giving the Slytherin a chance. Granted Ginny hadn't really known the blonde that well at Hogwarts and wasn't all that familiar with his former self, but after what Draco's father had done to Ginny in her first year, Harry thought it was pretty noble of her to insist they give the younger Malfoy a chance. Ron and the twins eventually gave in, but made it clear that they would exact quick revenge if Draco said anything derogatory about their family. 

.

Draco walked gracefully out of the fireplace into the living room of the Lighthouse. Harry was talking quietly to the three Weasley boys who were looking less than pleased. Ginny was the first to see him and gave him a nodded at him politely, giving him the best smile she could muster given who it was. The rest of the Weasleys simply did their best not to scowl at him. 

Harry turned around and shot Draco a supportive grin.

"Hey Draco, did you bring your extra broom for me?" he asked brightly.

Draco bit back the sarcastic reply of "_No, Harry, I was planning on riding these both myself_," and simply nodded and held his Nimbus out to Harry.

"Great! Let's go!" Harry said. The Weasley boys led the way outside, with Harry, Draco and Ginny following.

"So, er, Draco," Ginny said with difficulty, trying to think of something to say, "how has your summer been so far?"

Draco looked at her in surprise, shocked that any of the Weasleys was going beyond just tolerating his presence. "It's been surprisingly good, thank you," he said with as much politeness as he could muster. "How about yours?"

Harry shot him a proud look.

"Mine's been good as well, except I'm sure Harry told you about how I smashed his broom into oblivion," Ginny said with a guilty smile at Harry. Harry just chuckled.

"Oh yeah. Nearly as smooth as being knocked off your broom by a Bludger from your own team after everyone's stopped playing," Draco said, referring to the Quidditch game from the previous year.

Ginny and Harry both laughed, the former surprised at the effort the blonde was putting into getting along with her. Plus, she had never suspected he was one to have a real sense of humor. 

"Seems Harry here's saved both of our arses at some point," Ginny said with a grin as Harry blushed.

"What can I say, it's a hero-complex thing," Harry said with a shrug. 

The three Weasleys looked back curiously as they heard their sister, friend and enemy all laughing together behind them. 

Finally the six got out to the field where Sirius and Remus were lying out on lounge chairs sipping margaritas and chatting.

"Oh I'm glad to see you two are going to be a great help," Harry said with a roll of the eyes. The two Mauraders grinned at him and took sips of their drinks.

"We're on spell duty," Sirius said with a shrug.

"You need to have someone down here to make sure everything's even," Remus added, taking a sip of his margarita with a wink.

The six walked over to the field and began discussing measurements. They pulled out wizarding tape measure that would stretch as far as they wanted, never ending if needed. They were soon all running across the field in different directions, pulling the measuring tape between them and marking where each goal post would go with bright red X's. Next, they all worked together to carry the huge poles that Sirius had bought over to the pitch. Luckily Fred and George were able to cast spells on them to make them lighter and easier to carry. 

Harry, Draco, Ron and Ginny tied ropes to the circular part of a goal post and mounted their brooms. They flew up together slowly, pulling the ropes so the huge goal post was pulled upright. Once it was vertical, Fred and George guided the bottom to the red X. Remus and Sirius shouted directions from the ground, telling the fliers to move one way or the other to make the pole straight. When everything was right, Remus, Sirius, Fred and George all pointed their wands at it and said a joint spell, which sank the post several feet into the ground. 

They repeated the process with each goal post until all six were up and even. All they had to do was paint in the lines needed and they were done. 

Draco and Ron had done a pretty good job at staying out of each other's way the entire day, not saying a single word to each other. Yet, unfortunately, their paths met when drawing the lines and Draco accidentally (or purposely as Ron insisted) got the white paint on Ron's pant leg. 

"Idiot!" Ron snapped as he saw his ruined clothes. Draco glared at him.

"Oh I'm the idiot? You're the one who walked into where I was painting. It's not my fault you didn't look where you were going," Draco said in annoyance.

"You did it on purpose!" Ron accused him. 

"Sorry to break it to you, Weasel, but I wouldn't waste the paint on you," Draco said imperiously. 

"What, are you saying I'm not as good as you?" Ron asked hotly.

"You said it, not me," Draco said challengingly. 

"You guys, what's going on?" Harry asked worriedly, jogging up to the pair. The other three Weasleys were right behind him. Remus and Sirius hadn't noticed anything yet as they were deeply involved in their conversation. 

"Harry, how can you be friends with this spoiled little brat?" Ron asked angrily.

"Ron, come on, that's…" Harry started.

"Maybe he was tired of being stuck with a dimwit like you all the time," Draco snapped to Ron.

"Draco! That isn't tr…" Harry protested, but the two were no longer paying attention to him.

"News flash, ferret face, Harry's still _my_ best friend," Ron yelled. "Not yours."

"Getting territorial, Weasel? You obviously know I'm a threat then. Well, I can't help it if I have more class than you will ever even come close to. But don't worry, you must have _something_ to offer. Let's see…that's strange, I can't think of a single thing."

"Arrogant, ass-kissing ferret!" Ron shouted furiously.

"Sniveling little weasel!" Draco shot back heatedly.

"DEATH EATER!" 

"PAUPER!" 

"Draco! Ron! Stop it!" Harry yelled angrily. "Now, I'm friends with both of you and you're going to have to learn to deal with that! I'm not going to stop being friends with either of you and if you two could just try to get along for about five minutes maybe you'd see that there's a reason I _am_ friends with both of you! I mean, Ginny's getting along with Draco fine, why can't either of you just try?"

There was a momentary pause before Draco and Ron rounded on each other again, each blaming the other for being the one that wasn't putting in the effort. 

Harry let out a cry and grabbed his head.

"Oh very funny, Harry," Ron snapped. "If our fighting's giving you a headache, then you shouldn't invite…"

Harry looked up at Ron with a wide eyes and blood trickled out of his nose. He pressed the heals of his palms into his the sides of his head with a gasp. The redhead's face paled.

"Harry?" Draco asked in fright, but Harry's eyes closed as he lost consciousness. Draco darted forward and grabbed him before he could hit the ground.

"Oh gods! Oh gods!" Ginny shrieked. 

"SIRIUS!!" Fred yelled frantically as Draco lowered Harry's unconscious form to the ground and turned him onto his back. 

Sirius and Remus raced across the field. The two men pushed their way through the kids and knelt by Harry, trying to wake him.

"Oh no. It wasn't an attack, was it?" George asked fearfully, referring to the night where Harry had collapsed at the Burrow. They had all just assumed it was an attack. None of them had thought it could be something with his health. Wouldn't Snape have caught it? 

"Draco, go get your godfather and hurry," Remus instructed. The blonde nodded in fright and sprinted to the house as fast as he could. "Ron, did anything like this happen when Harry had his cancer?" he asked seriously. Everyone's face paled.

"No, not like this. Um…he collapsed in the hall once, but that wasn't like this, he was just really sick and had a lot of other symptoms than a headache, and he did again when he, George and I were flying around, but that was because he didn't take some medicine he was supposed to. This…this can't be like that. He doesn't have cancer anymore. He's fine!" Ron insisted, sounding a bit panicked.

There was a soft moan from Harry.

"I think he's coming to," Sirius announced, petting Harry's hair encouragingly. "Come on Harry. That's it. Just wake up now," he coaxed as Harry struggled to open his eyes. 

"What happened?" he asked confusedly, sitting up with great effort. He looked around and his expression grew slightly scared. "It happened again, didn't it? It wasn't an attack at the Burrow, was it?"

"Harry, we don't know what's going on, but it doesn't look like it was an attack. Draco's getting Snape," Sirius explained, just as Draco and Snape came running from the house. 

Harry wiped the blood from under his nose with his sleeve as Snape marched up authoritatively and knelt by Harry to start checking him over.

"Was it the same type of headache?" he asked. 

Harry nodded.

"Do you feel any remainders of it? Do you feel anything out of the ordinary at all?"

Harry shook his head. "I feel fine."

"I can't find anything wrong, but then again, I couldn't find anything wrong in your blood samples though something's obviously wrong. We're going to have to take you to St. Mungo's," Snape concluded. "We'd better go right now."

"But I feel fine, really!" Harry insisted.

"That's what worries me the most," Snape said grimly. 

Sirius pulled Harry to his feet and led him back inside, everyone else following in a frightened silence. 

Once they got to the fireplace, Snape asked Lupin if he could stay with Draco. The werewolf agreed, though he would have really liked to come along.

"Wait, no," Draco protested hotly. "I'm coming."

"So am I," Ron announced vehemently.

"Me too," said Ginny.

"Same here," the twins proclaimed simultaneously.

"None of you are coming," Snape said sternly. 

"If something's wrong with Harry we want to know," Ginny said firmly. 

"There's nothing wrong with me, I'm fine," Harry insisted, clearly embarrassed. Everybody rolled their eyes at the typical Harry line and ignored him.

"If you're going, I'm going," Draco informed his godfather.

"I am going because I am the only one familiar with Harry's medical condition and am the one who invented what brought him back and got rid of his cancer," Snape said sharply. "Sirius is going because he's Harry's godfather. The rest of you are not coming. You'll get in the way."

"No we won't, we'll just stay to the side and won't bother anyone," Fred insisted. 

"Yeah, we just want to know what's going on! We must have some unofficial-big-brother rights here!" George added.

"Or one of us could just go so they can act as the messenger if they find anything. And being Harry's best friend, that should be me," Ron declared.

"We're wasting time arguing about this, so you might as well just let us all go so we can get Harry there," Ginny said firmly. 

"No more arguing, you are not coming," Snape commanded. 

The kids began arguing again but immediately stopped when Harry let out another cry of pain and grabbed his head, doubling over in pain. This time he did not pass out, but blood streamed out of his nose and down his face. The pain quickly passed, but the blood didn't. Snape made Harry tilt his head back and pinch his nose.

"That's it, I'm taking him," Sirius said quickly, a bit panicked. He guided Harry to the fireplace and the pair quickly Flooed to St. Mungo's, Snape following right behind them after dishing out threats on the lives of any who dared to come after them and get in the way. 

Fred and George immediately Flooed home to inform their parents of what was going on, while Ron and Ginny adamantly refused to leave, wanting to hear any information as soon as possible. 

There was nothing to do but wait.

Harry nervously sat on the examining table in one of the many sterile rooms. He struggled to fill in the many forms with one hand while pinching his nose with the other. The blood was slowing down, but an occasional drop would drip down onto the form, something that Harry was sure would be frowned upon by those who had to handle it. Yet he was the only one who could answer most of the questions, so he had opted to fill out the form himself while Sirius paced the room and Snape sat in the corner, occasionally sneering that the healers were taking too long and wasting their time. 

"Are you sure you don't want me to help you fill that out, Harry?" Sirius asked for the tenth time. 

"No I got it," Harry said quickly. He found many of the questions rather embarrassing and would not like his godfather dictating them out loud or even considering them. There were a few types of talks he was absolutely certain he did not want to have with his godfather. 

Finally, a Healer entered the room, shutting the door behind him. He was a kind-looking man with floppy brown hair. He gave Harry a comforting smile.

"Good afternoon. I'm Healer Callahan," he said brightly. "You're lucky. I've just finished my studies in Muggle illnesses and I'm the only healer here who has studied them. I'll say we don't get too many cases like yours, Mr. Potter. Now do I understand this correctly? You had Muggle Leukemia and carried it to its last stages and was cured of it, and you were killed but was brought back to life? I read the story in the Prophet and thought it was just another fabrication, but you've told Nurse Johnson that it is in fact true. Does somebody in here know the details of that?" he asked hopefully. 

Snape stood. "What do you need to know?"

"How much do you know?"

"Well, I invented the potion and spell that did it, so I probably know the most out of anyone," Snape said, constantly sounding snappish, suspicious and annoyed. Healer Callahan didn't seem to mind. 

Snape tried to explain the details of what he had done to Hr. Callahan, who listened intently, seeming to understand it all. 

While the two other men talked, Sirius came over and cleaned the blood off Harry's shirt with a wave of the wand.

"How ya doing, kiddo?" he asked quietly as to not interrupt the others. Harry tentatively pulled the paper towels away from his nose to find that the bleeding had stopped. He pointed that fact out to his godfather.

"I'm feeling fine. I just hope we can get out of here soon," he said quietly with a sigh. 

"I know. I don't like hospitals much. I want to get out of here just as much as you, but we need to find out what's wrong first. Your health is number one priority."

"It's probably just some whacko side effect from going from so sick to healthy so quickly," Harry said reassuringly. 

Sirius's expression seemed a bit lighter as he agreed with the statement.

"I mean, really," Harry continued, "I really don't think it's anything serious."

Suddenly, pain shot through his head again. 

He distantly heard Sirius call his name, right before he blacked out.

A/N: Random note for you guys. I got Anna's name from the "Annabella's Song" by Everclear. I don't know if any of you have ever heard it, but I, for one, love it. Okay, this new QuickEdit thing on ff.net is actually a pain in the ass. It keeps deleting my star paragraph separate-ers!! Does anyone know how to keep spaces in between paragraphs without putting little periods and such in between them? It hasn't been working for me since Recnac, and I'm not doing anything different! Anyways, review please!


	8. Exploring New Territory

**Author's Note: **Hey all, I'm very close to being better, though I've now officially been sick for 2 weeks straight. It's okay though since all I'm dealing with now is a runny nose. Prom was on Friday and it was so wonderfully fun. Well, my date kind of sucked because his focal point of choice was strategically _below_ my face, if you know what I mean. I'm not sure if he realized I even _had_ a face. Anyways, it was still fun and the after-party included jumping on a trampoline in our prom clothes until we broke it (oops!) and dancing around to Footloose and such. By five in the morning, we were all just lying around the kitchen talking about hypothetical questions. It was so fun, though I do think I might have poked someone in the eye while dancing to the YMCA.

Well, here's the next chapter! I can tell you that the first really big thing is going to happen within the next few chapters. Of course, I can't tell you what that is, but I like to peak your interests every once in awhile and make sure you know I do intend to go somewhere with all this.

Harry woke to bright light shining in his eyes. Hr. Callahan was looking down at him. Harry squinted into the light and Hr. Callahan quickly said, "Nox," and pulled his wand out of Harry's eyes. The healer helped pull Harry back into a sitting position and cleaned him up with a quick cleaning spell, as his nose had started to bleed again.

"Okay, so I take it that was a little demonstration of what's been happening. Can you describe exactly what you felt there?"

Harry once again tried to describe the flash of pain in his head that disappeared as soon as he woke, leaving him just feeling momentarily drowsy before any evidence of it disappeared altogether.

"All right. Harry, I'm going to take you down to the lab and perform some tests and get some head scans. I must admit I have no idea what's causing this, but my best guess is that it's some sort of after-effect of the experimental spell used to bring you back to life. Hopefully it'll just be a temporary condition, but since this is obviously unfamiliar territory, it could mean anything," he said, somehow managing to soften the blow with his comforting tone of voice. He then turned to Sirius and Snape. "You two can wait in the waiting room, or there's a tearoom on the fifth floor you can…"

"Woah, wait, we're staying with Harry," Sirius protested, sounding slightly alarmed. "Snape is Harry's physician," he said, stretching the truth slightly, much to Snape's surprise. "He knows more than any of us about Harry's condition and what that spell did. I really think he should be involved in whatever you're doing. And I am his godfather and refuse to leave him."

"I understand your concern, but…" Hr. Callahan began apprehensively.

"Look," Snape stepped up in his usual menacing sort of way, "Harry's still under a considerable amount of danger, and for safety reasons his godfather will be near him, and for medical reasons, I will be involved in whatever tests are done. Otherwise, we will bring Harry elsewhere."

Hr. Callahan sighed in surrender. "All right. I guess we could use your expertise in this area anyways, Professor. If you will all please follow me then?"

They spent hours in the lab drawing blood, giving Harry's head the wizarding equivalent of an x-ray, and hundreds of different tests for different types of illnesses that Harry could possibly have.

However, everything indicated that he was healthy, aside from his weak immune system. Harry was relieved to hear that even with extensive testing for it, there didn't seem to be any cancer left in his system and that all the cells it had mutated were back to normal.

Yet all this seemed to trouble the adults more, as they weren't able to find the problem but knew there was one all the same.

"Well, it seems that we can't find the source of this. The only thing I can think to do at this point," said Hr. Callahan, looking troubled, "is to start trying to figure out what exactly it's doing to Harry, what technically causes the fainting and nose bleeds, and work from there. We'll just have to start testing out things and see what has an effect."

"So we're just going to fiddle around with Harry's health trying to fix a problem we don't understand?" Sirius asked worriedly. "That doesn't seem safe."

Harry silently agreed.

"Well, we seem to have no other choice at the moment. You're right, we don't understand the problem and therefore we don't understand the degree of seriousness it could entail. It could be a temporary side-effect, or it could be indicative of a larger problem. You said yourself that it only happened once a few weeks ago, and then today it happened three times. It seems it may be increasing in severity and we have to try something," Hr. Callahan gently argued.

"How often am I going to have to come in?" Harry asked apprehensively.

"Well, I think it'll depend somewhat on what happens with these little attacks of yours and how successful we are to begin with. Since it'll be difficult to continue these sorts of tests often once you start school, I think we should really try to get a solution as quickly as possible. How does three times a week sound? Two to four hours a day depending on what we need to do. I'll even let you chose the days," the kind man suggested.

Harry gaped at him. "Three times a week? No, that's way too much! It's not that bad really…"

"Harry, we need to figure out what's causing this," Snape said sternly. "Three times a week is hardly a sacrifice. You're lucky we're not hauling you in here every day."

Harry sighed and reluctantly relented. He grudgingly agreed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They agreed to have the appointments in the mornings. Hr. Callahan kindly offered to change any of Harry's appointments if given notice, in case something came up.

Finally, after night had long since fallen, the three Flooed back to the Lighthouse.

When they arrived, Harry was taken aback to see that not only were the Weasley kids still there, but so were their parents. He was pleasantly surprised to see that Ginny and Draco were playing chess together, even if the three Weasley boys didn't look too pleased about the fact.

Everyone jumped up to greet them, all looking extremely worried and asking a thousand questions at a time.

"So what's wrong?" Ron asked loudly over the voices of everyone else.

Harry shrugged with a sigh.

"They don't know," Sirius explained gently.

"And I have to go to stupid testing three days a week!" Harry said indignantly. Yet, he didn't get very many sympathizers, since everyone else's first priority was Harry's health, even if Harry's was not.

"As long as they can help you, honey, it's for the best," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh, by the way," Harry said, blushing slightly, "sorry about the scare with the whole attack thing."

"Don't be silly, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said in a rush. "Now we just have stronger wards than we did before, which is always a good thing."

"All right, I'd reckon it's time to get home," Mr. Weasley said to his kids. "Harry, you get some rest."

His kids groaned and whined as their parents shuffled them through the fireplace. Sirius and Snape went into the kitchen with Remus to talk about the latest developments in Harry's health.

"So, that went well," Draco said sarcastically as soon as the Weasleys were all gone.

Harry sighed. "Well, you didn't have to call him those things." Draco opened his mouth to protest but Harry put up a hand. "I know, I know. He insulted you too. Well, it's both of your faults then. At least you got along with Ginny all right."

"Well, the Weaslette seems decent. It's unfortunate about that family of hers," he drawled.

"Draco…" Harry said warningly.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"It would be so much easier if you could just get along," Harry sighed. "Now, if I ever want to do anything, I have to chose which one of you to invite or something."

"Well, there's your solution right there. Just always invite me," Draco said with a satisfied smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes.

.

Remus and Harry were sitting in the living room talking when Sirius ran down the stairs excitedly. He had been looking for something in the attic and dust clung to the bottom of his robes. He was carrying something that looked like a large box, with large, skinny square envelopes under his arm.

"Did you find that book you were looking for?" Remus asked.

"No," Sirius said brightly, "I found something better!"

He set the box on the table and opened the lid. It was an old record player.

"Lily got it for me when she was in her phase of giving us Muggle lessons," he explained to Harry. "And Remy, look at this!" he said, holding up a dusty record case, which he wiped off on his robes.

"Oh Merlin, is that what I think it is?" Remus said excitedly.

Sirius shot him a huge grin and put the record on. It was a disco song. Harry and Remus laughed as Sirius looked at them and began doing disco moves.

"Remember this song, Moony?" Sirius asked enthusiastically.

"Of course I do. How could I forget?" Remus said with a laugh.

"Do you remember the moves Lily taught us to go with it?" Sirius asked with a bright grin.

Remus nodded with a chuckle.

"Then get your arse up here and boogie down with me!" Sirius ordered cheerily. Harry laughed and Remus shook his head vehemently.

"No way," he said.

"Remy…"

"No."

"Reeeeemy…."

"No."

"The chorus is coming, get up here," Sirius said, pulling Moony to his feet. The Defense professor protested continually until the chorus struck and he was suddenly compelled to join Sirius in what appeared to be a coordinated disco dance. Harry laughed hysterically and the two men began to sing to the seventies song.

"Do you know this song, Har?" Sirius asked, continuing his outrageous dancing.

Harry chuckled. "Frighteningly, yes."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Sirius exclaimed.

"Harry, if I'm looking like a fool, you have to as well," Remus said.

"No way," he said, mirroring Remus's earlier words. "You two look ridiculous."

"Harry…" the two men called, grins on their faces as the chorus began approaching. Sirius grabbed a spoon out of an empty bowl on a side table and shoved it into Harry's hand for a microphone.

"No way, you guys," Harry protested.

"Come on Har, here's the chorus. We're just the back ups; you're our main singer!" Sirius shouted gleefully.

Harry made a face and jumped to his feet on top of the couch and began belting out the words with Sirius and Remus.

"Alright, Har," Sirius said as soon as the chorus was over, "now you have to work in the moves."

"There is no better guarantee to make yourself look like an idiot," Remus said enticingly.

Harry laughed as he began imitating the dance moves the two men were teaching him.

"Congratulations Harry," Remus laughed over the music, "you now have the skills to look like a complete prat while dancing!"

"A prat with style," Sirius corrected.

"Oh joy," Harry said sarcastically with a huge grin as three once again broke out into the chorus.

.

"Come on, Ron. You can do this. He's not that bad, really!" Harry insisted as Ron stood rigid before the Lighthouse's fireplace, looking oddly pale.

"You know," he started in a higher voice than normal, "being a healer was a dumb idea. I don't need Advanced Potions after all." He turned around to walk away but Harry grabbed his shoulders, turned him back around, and marched him forward to the fireplace.

"Ron, you have to at least ask. You'd make a brilliant healer and Madam Pomfrey already talked to Professor Snape, but he refuses to let you in unless you ask him yourself," Harry said for the tenth time.

"I doubt he'll be so forgiving after the fight Malfoy picked with me," Ron said bitterly. Harry raised an eyebrow. "What?" Ron asked innocently. "I tried to be civil."

"Oh, so calling him an '_arrogant, ass-kissing ferret_' was really a call for peace?"

Ron shrugged. "He deserved it."

"No he didn't, Ron. And you didn't deserve the things he called you. I just hope you'll both see that one day," Harry said with a sigh. "Anyways, back to the subject at hand," he said, gesturing to the fireplace.

Ron gulped. "You're coming with me, right? You're not going to leave me alone with him?"

"No, I'll be right there the whole time. Ron, he's not that bad. He's not going to attack you…maybe poison you, but all you have to do is make sure you don't drink anything."

Ron looked at him in horror.

"Joking, Ron. Just joking," Harry said with a chuckle, handing him the pot of Floo powder for the redhead to take a pinch.

"How about you go first?" Ron suggested.

"No, because then I know you'll never come behind me and that would look even worse if I had to go back for you. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you, I swear," Harry said reassuringly.

Ron took a deep breath and threw his powder in, stepping into the green flames.

"Snape Manor," he squeaked in a frightened voice.

Harry followed right behind him, nearly knocking into Ron as he came through the other side.

Snape was sitting in his favorite chair. He looked up and raised an eyebrow. Harry rolled his eyes as Snape put on his cold, menacing look he liked to wear when in the role of greasy Potions master.

"Weasley," he said coldly.

"Um…hi, Professor. I was sort of…I mean I _was_…or I _am_ wondering if I could maybe be in Advanced Potions next year?" Ron asked nervously. "I know I didn't do well on my Potions O.W.L., and I haven't gotten great marks in your class, but Madam Pomfrey said I need it if I want to be a healer and I really want to be one so I would try really, really hard. So um…yeah," he finished lamely, sneaking a worried glance at Harry who nodded reassuringly.

"What makes you think you deserve to be entitled to a privilege given to those who have actually worked hard for five years in my class? Do you think that even though there are students who have worked toward doing well on their Potions O.W.L. and getting good marks in my class, I should accept you anyway, even though you have been a complete failure in it so far, just because you changed your mind?" Snape asked in an intimidating tone.

"I-I'll try really hard," Ron offered weakly.

"So you can try hard for two years while everyone else has to try hard for seven? Is that fair?"

Ron was at a loss for words and shot a desperate look at his friend.

Harry stepped forward next to Ron. "You accepted me into your class and I slacked off the first four years and last year I made the marks only because of an unfair advantage, but you said I could be in as long as I work hard, which is exactly what Ron's offering to do."

Snape shot him a glare, but Harry just smirked back, knowing he had won.

"Weasley!" Snape snapped sharply just to see Ron jump. He needed to occasionally reassure himself of his ability to intimidate since it wasn't working on Harry and Draco. "Despite my predictions that you will fail miserably if allowed into advanced Potions, I will give you a chance to get in. I only let those who are able to understand the material on the Potions O.W.L. into the class, no exceptions. I'll give you a test equal to the OWLs in two weeks. If you are up to satisfactory standards, I'll let you in. You should thank Madam Pomfrey because she is the only reason I'm even considering this."

"Thank you, Professor," Ron said quickly.

"Don't thank me, Weasley. Use your efforts to start studying because your current level of competence in this subject will not even get you close to passing the test I'll give you."

"Yes sir."

"Now get out of my house, Weasley," Snape said with a sneer.

Ron nodded and hurried back to the fireplace. Harry caught Snape's eye as soon as Ron turned. Harry rolled his eyes. Snape smirked in a self-satisfied way before going back to his reading.

The two boys Flooed back to the Lighthouse.

"He's not that bad?" Ron asked incredulously. "That felt like visiting the head of some crime ring and begging for my life!"

"He's not always like that. He was just trying to intimidate you," Harry said with a shrug.

"Well it bloody worked! I'm never going to be able to pass that test," Ron said in exasperation.

"I'll help you study. I still remember everything I knew about Potions last year and I tutored Neville and Eloise, so I can tutor you as well. Of course, this next year, you might be on your own since I'm having to get tutored myself on the summer homework."

"Tutored by who?"

"Professor Snape."

Ron shuddered. "You know, you always call him _Professor_ Snape now. What happened to just plain old Snape?"

Harry shrugged. "Respect?"

"Oh Merlin, you've gone nutters," Ron proclaimed. Harry laughed.

"Maybe, but at least it's a _new_ development for me," he teased, giving Ron a pointed look.

"Hey!" Ron said, making a face at Harry.

"Come on, let's go look through my old Potions books. We're getting you into Advanced Potions whether you like it or not."__

.

That night, the Harry and Draco were called upon their offer to babysit for Anna so Snape and Laura could go on their first real date, a thought which would have made the entire student body of Hogwarts shudder.

The night was mostly spent with Anna making up games and Harry playing along with her, while Draco watched with a raised eyebrow. They eventually got the Slytherin to join in on the fun by hiding some of his things and drawing coded treasure maps he would have to follow to find them. Of course Harry had to mouth to him over Anna's head what some of the symbols were, since Anna had drawn them and they didn't make logical sense to anyone above the age of five.

"Harry! Draco!" Anna squeaked at one point as they were going to turn a corner. "I hear pirates!" she whispered urgently.

Harry put his finger to his lips and pulled out the fencing foil he had sheathed in his belt loop. Anna did the same with the one she had been carrying. Draco couldn't help but be enticed into joining into the childhood world of pretend he had never been allowed to participate in when he was that age. Anna whispered for him to pull out his sword and Draco embarrassedly pulled out the foil that Anna had insisted he put through his own belt loop. Harry chuckled slightly and Draco made a face at him.

Right when they got to the end of the map, Harry pretended to turn against the other two, wanting the treasure for himself. This, of course, led to a duel which Anna watched in amazement, calling to Draco every five seconds that she had his back, dragging along the large fencing foil as she ran on little legs in circles around the two to get the full view. Finally, Harry was defeated, knocked to the ground. Anna sat on his chest to keep him down as Draco claimed the treasure, which turned out to be a stack of Draco's boxers crammed into a shoebox. The Slytherin looked at Harry indignantly as the Gryffindor broke out into hysterics, still lying with Anna perched on top of his chest.

"Harry!" Draco cried in embarrassment.

"I didn't know. Anna picked it out," he laughed. Anna looked at the two curiously.

"Harry said to find something that couldn't be broken. He said clothes would be a good idea so I got some of your shorts. How come you don't wear your shorts, Draco?" Anna asked innocently.

"Yeah, Dray, why don't you wear your shorts?" Harry asked, echoing Anna's innocent tone while he had a knowing grin on his face. He lifted Anna off his chest so he could sit up, but she scrambled onto his lap as soon as he was situated.

"I _do_ wear them, thank you very much."

"Ooh, can you try them on so I can see?" Anna asked innocently. "I think the green ones are pretty."

Harry burst out into peals of laughter and Anna looked at him in confusion.

Draco just huffed and stalked off to go put his boxers away.

"Is Draco going to go put them on?" Anna asked excitedly.

"I don't think so, Anna," Harry chuckled. "I don't think it's a good idea to go through Draco's things anymore."

"Okay, Harry," she said, hugging him around the neck. "Do you think Draco needs a hug?" she asked him seriously, her big blue eyes meeting Harry's green ones.

Harry grinned mischievously. "You know, I think he does."

As soon as the Slytherin walked back into the room, Anna ran up and demanded a hug.

"Uh…I don't do hugs," Draco said, flabbergasted.

Anna looked at him with a hurt expression and Draco immediately corrected himself.

"Just joking," he said weakly. He glared at Harry, daring him to say a word, as he awkwardly bent down to the girl's level and let her wrap her arms around his neck. Draco patted her on the back a few times before breaking away, looking very relieved to get out of that awkward situation.

"You're the best pirate ever, Draco," Anna said sincerely.

"Oh joy," he said with a sarcasm that was beyond the four-year-old's grasp.

.

Harry and Draco weren't the only ones who ended up babysitting Anna. Snape and Laura had begun to see each other very often and Anna had taken an unexplainable liking to Snape, and Laura seemed to be oblivious to the fact that the feelings weren't quite reciprocated. Therefore, when she had to go out of town unexpectedly, she asked Snape if she could leave Anna with him for a few days. Snape was still positive he had meant to say no, but somehow a yes had stumbled out of his mouth. Draco had made it quite clear that he wasn't having the responsibility dumped on him and hid out at Harry's for awhile, leaving Snape alone with the four-year-old girl.

Of course, when Harry found out, he had to see it for himself. As much as he had tried to encourage the Potions master to try with Anna, Harry truly couldn't picture Snape dealing with kids. He was a little worried for the girl, wondering if Snape was planning on just putting her in a full body bind for the few days. Draco had to admit he was curious to see how it was going over at Snape Manor.

The two Flooed over and Baz the house elf told them that Snape was giving Anna her dinner. Harry could have sworn the house elf was biting back a laugh.

The boys walked to the kitchen and opened the door.

Snape was standing near the table, looking as if he was in shock. He was covered with what looked like powdered sugar and was dripping with syrup. Anna was in a similar state, but while Snape was looking as if he were lost, Anna was standing on her chair biting holes out of the middle of her pancakes and slipping them on her wrists.

"Harry! Draco!" she squealed in delight, running toward them. Draco jumped behind Harry so the little girl ran to the Gryffindor, wrapping her arms around his legs. "Do you like my pancake jewelry?" she asked proudly, holding up her hands to show them.

Harry and Draco looked questioningly over at Snape.

"She said she wanted pancakes," he muttered, still in some kind of shock.

Harry lifted Anna up and carried her back to her chair as she sucked syrup from her fist. He gave her a gentle lecture about playing with her food as he took the pancakes off her arms, pointing out that she wasn't the one to have to clean it and that Snape was now messy too when he didn't want to be.

Anna turned around in her chair and looked up at Snape with innocent eyes.

"Aw, Sevvie, are you mad at me?" Anna asked.

Snape opened his mouth and Harry thought he might berate her as he did his students, but instead he just sighed.

"No, but don't play with your food anymore."

Anna jumped out of her seat and hugged Snape around the knees. "Aw, Sevvie, I love you. I want you to be my daddy."

Snape coughed in surprise.

"Er, I think you need a bath," he countered.

"Noooo," Anna whined.

"You have to take a bath because you are too messy to sit or walk anywhere in the house. The sooner you take a bath, the sooner you can have dessert, which you can _only_ have if you don't play with it."

Harry looked up at Snape in surprise while Anna lit up.

"Dessert? Okay!" she agreed happily, holding up her arms as a signal to be picked up. Snape lifted her up into his arms.

"Draco, can you call a house elf to clean this up?" he asked as he walked out the door.

"Was Professor Snape just being…_fatherly_?" Harry asked in amazement.

"Sev can surprise you with the fatherly thing on occasion," Draco said with a shrug. "He tries, there's just the small barrier of having absolutely no experience in caring for anyone that he's working on getting over. It's so weird having him do the serious talks. He gets all nervous. It's sort of funny, really. Just don't tell him I told you that or he might kill me."

Harry felt a pang of jealousy that he couldn't explain.

.

Harry was sitting at the kitchen table moping slightly. He had just gotten back from another one of his medical appointments, and was positive they were wasting his time. They had gotten no closer to figuring out what was wrong with him, and the only progress they had made was in making it so he stayed conscious longer when the headaches hit. Hr. Callahan assured him that this was a good development, but all Harry knew was that the headaches were painful enough to make him long for unconsciousness when they struck. Most of the times, it was like the Cruciatus curse being focused in on his head. Hr. Callahan asked him to try to figure out where the pain originated, but it was too intense to sort out. Sirius and Snape weren't too happy with everything either. The headaches coincidentally hit most of the time during the appointments, and they all had to watch as Harry writhed around on the table, biting back screams of agony. All Hr. Callahan could do was continue to test him, to try to study the headaches, and give him a new potion to try with each visit, making him swallow the entirety of it in his office and report the effects to him the next time he came in.

The tension between Hr. Callahan and Snape was obvious as well. Snape was constantly trying to question the healer and kept making sarcastic comments about the things the healer had tried. Hr. Callahan dealt with it well, in Harry's opinion, being very calm and patient, but struck back at the potions master in his own way by no longer letting him take home and critically examine samples of the potions he was giving Harry. Harry figured the man was probably sick of Snape's comments on how the potion could have been made slightly better.

Hedwig flew through the window, landing on Harry's head to tease him and try to cheer him up.

"Hedwig," Harry chuckled, reaching up to get her off, but she dug her talons into his hair. "All right, all right. Can I have my letter at least?"

Hedwig stuck out her leg with a hoot and Harry pulled off the letter.

Harry- 

_Big news. Fate is in the making. Come over at seven. Major help needed._

_Eloise_

"What do you think, girl?" Harry asked the owl on his head. "Fate in the making?"

Hedwig hooted in a way that sounded like a scoff and ruffled her feathers.

"Yeah, I agree," Harry said, taking a sip of his tea.

.

At seven, Harry found himself and Neville being escorted to Eloise's room where she sat them down on her bed.

"So what's this big news, Eloise?" Neville asked.

"All right, are you ready?" she asked taking a deep breath.

"Ready," Harry and Neville said together.

"Roger Davies asked me on a date, tonight!" she squeaked excitedly.

Neville's and Harry's grins faded, though the both plastered them back on half-heartedly as Eloise looked at them.

"Oh, that's…that's good," Harry said.

Neville only managed a weak smile.

"All right, he's going to be here in an hour. You stay here and I'm going to try on the outfits I'm thinking about and show them to you and you can help me decide," she said jumping around.

"Eloise, you know we're not girls, right?" Harry asked. Eloise happily ignored him and ran off to go put on the first prospective outfit.

The whole time, Neville was pacing the room, only stopping when Eloise would show them another outfit. Then, Neville would smile and compliment her, but as soon as she would leave, the act would drop and he would begin his pacing again.

"Harry, what do you know about this Roger bloke?"

"He's a pretty decent bloke from what I can tell. He seems nice enough," he said truthfully.

"Why do you think he's suddenly so into Eloise?" he asked suspiciously. "I mean, why now? Why not before? It's sort of fishy?"

"Well, now he knows that she exists for starters. He's popular so he's mostly surrounded by a certain type of girl, the completely into looks and reputation sort. I mean, _Cho_ was his date to ball. Eloise is probably one of the first girls he's met who actually has a personality," Harry said thoughtfully. Neville sat down on the bed miserably.

Eloise popped back in the room and Neville's solemn expression instantly transformed into a cheery grin.

"Okay, so here's the yellow skirt with the white shirt. Do you have it committed to memory?"

The two boys nodded and Eloise popped back out.

As soon as she was gone, Neville's expression turned depressed once more.

"Do you think they'll start dating a lot? You know, become a couple?" Neville asked weakly.

Harry looked at him sympathetically. "Why don't you tell her how you feel?" he suggested cautiously.

Neville's head shot up.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he stammered.

Harry quickly glanced at the door to make sure Eloise wasn't there. "That you fancy her," he whispered.

Neville's face went pale. He let out a forced chuckle and shifted uncomfortably. "What? I don't. Really! I don't," he insisted.

"Neville, it's obvi—" Harry abruptly shut his mouth as Eloise popped in again with her last outfit of consideration.

After a thoughtful discussion of all her outfits (by Eloise herself since the boys had secretly forgotten all the choices. They just nodded along with whatever she said) Eloise did her hair in her bedroom, which killed any chance of conversation between Neville and Harry.

As eight o' clock drew nearer, they made their way down to the living room. Eloise grew more and more nervous and Neville began to sight more and more often, leaving Harry to calm Eloise himself.

"Why is he asking _me_ to go on a date? He has so many pretty popular girls after him! That sixth year, Mindy Morganson, obviously fancies him. He's got to know that! And she's bloody gorgeous! Oh, maybe I should have worn something differt," she said anxiously, pacing the room and jumping sideways into the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror every so often.

"Eloise, you look fine. He asked you out for a reason so stop worrying. Besides, er…" he tried to think of something that would make her feel better, "Mindy's an idiot with a fixation on shopping," he finished lamely, but it seemed to do the trick.

"Really?" she asked as though it was the sweetest thing anybody had ever said to her.

"Yup. Complete Cho clone."

He followed her into the bathroom as she played with her hair with a sigh.

"But um…Eloise? Are you sure this is your fate?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I just thought you were always a step ahead of the game with the romance stuff."

"I am," she said proudly.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, looking over to Neville. Eloise followed his gaze to find Neville looking at her sadly. When she caught his gaze he smiled fondly. He stood up and walked over.

"You look nice, Eloise. Roger won't know what hit him," he said with a forced smile.

Eloise was looking at him curiously when the bell rang over the fireplace, signaling that someone was Flooing in. A very handsome Roger stepped out with a smile.

"Hi Eloise. Hey there Harry," he added in surprise. "And…"

"Neville."

"Right, Eloise told me about you," he said charmingly. He pulled out a flower. "It's a Portkey," he explained to Eloise, "to take us to the restaurant."

"Well, you two have fun," Harry said. Neville managed a weak smile.

Roger held out the rose to Eloise. "Ready?"

She nodded and tentatively touched it, shooting a searching look over at Neville just before she disappeared.

Eloise's parents burst into the room with cameras.

"Oh shucks," Eloise's mum said disappointedly, "we missed them. I wanted to get pictures of our baby's first date!"

"She would have killed us, wouldn't she?" her dad asked.

The two boys nodded.

"All right, well you two have some cookies before you leave. I want to hear about what's been going on with you lately," Mrs. Midgen said warmly, leading the two boys into the kitchen.

A/N: Just a quick reminder to review!! They encourage me to update sooner, hint hint.

****

**Wiccan PussyKat: **lol, you know you love the cliffhangers, and I've left a few really steep ones throughout this fic, so watch your step! Lol. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the plot, and even if I had, it's all written down in my ratty tatty notebook and most of the fic's typed up! looks around as rabid fans look hungrily at the notebook and my computer. Celebony gulps There will be more of the Stensons soon, but as you said, they're not going to dominate the fic. They're very useful however. Of course Anna doesn't know better, but I'm occasionally afraid for her life with the things that pop out of her mouth. I babysit a four year old all the time so I know the random, and many times awkward, things that they say. Sev's trying, but he definitely has his moments where he slips back into Snape mode. He, like Sirius, is very unused to the parenting thing, and Snape hardly even knows how to have any human contact where he doesn't act like a bastard. We'll have to see where he goes. You are a sleuthy genius, or are you? Dun dun dun. Lol. I love your reviews, btw! They're very wonderful.

**Velith: **I'm glad you like the new characters. Yes they are Irish. Your plot summary sounds good! Good luck on the fic! I'll try to read it sometime this summer when I hopefully have more time. None of my friends like HP fanfiction either, nor do they even know I write it. I know what you mean, though. It would be very useful if they did.

**ParanoiaIn2005: **lol, yes, this cliffie is now very famous in my story. But it's so fun just to make Harry pass out and let everyone wonder why. I'm so glad you liked the date scene. It was majorly fun to write and I was hoping it would be fun to read as well. The thing with how Snape acts toward Anna is that he actually realizes that she's not one of his students. In fact, (don't tell him I told you this) he's actually a bit scared of her. He doesn't know how to act around her and wants to make a good impression with Laura. He's very lost with how to act around a rambunctious four-year-old. You've got to remember that Ginny hasn't had the same kind of previous interaction with Draco that the other Weasley boys have. Though he may have made an occasional snide comment to her, it's nothing compared to his rivalry with Ron, or even the twins which spurred from the Quidditch field. Lol, my mom and my aunt always sit around the pool drinking Margaritas, so I guess that's where I got the idea. I didn't want to give them hard liquor that would remind Harry of his uncle's drinking habits, and I figured it's about time for them to have a little fun. Oops, sometimes I miss little things like repeating a word too much. I'll try to be more careful, but thanks for pointing it out! I'm glad you like "Annabella's Song"!! I love it too! Everclear rocks.

**EternallyMine: **Lol, thank you! takes deep bow lol, won't be able to retake the chem test, but it's okay. Everyone always fails them anyways (my teacher's a combo of Binns and Snape. Boring and cruel), but thanks for the concern. Lol, one time I set the oven on fire. We're such good cooks, aren't we? Lol. I'm glad you're mad at Snape. So am I. He's got a long way to go, hasn't he? Ah, well, he's still in adjustment period and he figures Harry can take it. Ron and Draco are both very stubborn and not ready to put the past behind them, unfortunately. Lol, I love the famous last words. Very hilarious. I truly enjoy making characters eat their words. This fic, I'm especially cruel in that fashion. Once everyone finds out what happens, if they go back and reread it, they might find just how much I use the famous last words idea. Of course I don't want you to stop. I love your reviews. Keep up the great work!

**Myr Halcyon: **lol, yeah they are. LOL, the potter puppet pals are SOOOOOO funny. Lol, actually, many people are looking for a trigger. I've got a bunch of sleuths on my hands!! I love it! I'm glad you like Anna and her song. I'm really happy you're not trusting my characters, since that shows you've got a healthy suspicion that will come in very handy with the fic. Keep it up, Sherlock!

**Ash of Mine **(in a way, but there will be much more serious stuff later), **Solus Ardere and Ranagirl **(wow, that is a coincidence! No, the fic will not run into the school year but takes place entirely during the summer), **Catiechan** (I'm glad you like! Much Harry angst ahead, trust me), **yellowpages, Rakella, Mickeymoose, angeli0722, SiriusWolf, gizachick, Kevin-McKay, lyss33, Crystal113, dana, Lindiel Eryn, Evil Unicorn, liz **(lol, well, you'll see, but I love your guesses! Congrats about the art institute! That's awesome!), **Serpent of Light **(no problem! I'm glad you're reviewing now. I'm so glad you find my work original! I really try to make it so. Thanks for the awesome compliments!), **bast4, pokie4389, Rocky235, shadowsfriend **(I'm so happy to hear you can picture the scenes I write. That's really one of the ultimate compliments.), **Savoy Truffle **(cool, French computers!!)**, Didge **(lol, me too. Sick Harry's just so fun. Actually, I agree with you on the ships, though I didn't when I started Recnac. But I'm glad to do an H/G since I really don't think there are many good ones out there. I want to put in my contribution toward that cause.), **fantagal **(run me over with a car? You sound like my brother. He took out our bushes the third day he had his permit. Lol), **Gryphonmistress **(definite H/G stuff, though it's not the central focus. This fic takes place entirely during the summer.), **Mistress-Genari, Helen, KrijonLodgae **(well, I hope to change your mind. Just be patient with this one and give it some time to develop, because I personally like this one better than Recnac. Of course, you're free to choose on your own, but don't abandon this one yet), **Nemati, Nation El-Diablo, fairy, Mystic Phoenix, Von **(we'll see…anyways, I type my story in Microsoft Word and save it as a web page. It's always worked with Recnac, but now it won't leave in my spaces. Oh well. I'll find ways around it.), **Alternativelyspliced **(lol, don't worry. I'm a person of extreme sarcasm, as may come through in my character's speech often times. I'm quite good at recognizing it, and sometimes even think I recognize it when it's not there. Lol. I'm very hard to offend that way. Never think that people are actually insulting me, lol.), **ImaginaryFriendless **(some things don't change, but some things just need time and perhaps a reason to change.), **Agnes, Atticus J. Finch, Earthmom **(I'm glad you like the length. I try to give you guys a lot with each update)**, EriEka127 **(I love cliffies!), **angel74 **(hey you! When are you going to update?! Please, soon! Fave author of all time? Really? Wow, thank you!! Lol, yes, praise does actually motivate me to either update sooner, or at least work on my fic, which will lead to quicker updates of future chapters), **atenakitty, ardicana **(lol, don't worry, most people didn't figure that out for a while. I have a thing with backwards words. They're fun.), **HarryandGinnyforever, Siri Kat, Arctic Wolf2 **(so much it hurts? Well, I hope it "hurts so good" as Bob Seiger might sing. Lol. Thanks for the great compliment!)**, kneh13, Black-Rose1212, Serpentsattire, Ashes7, Lourdes1 **(Thank you so much! I'm glad you like the sequel and I am trying very hard to make sure this one does not disappoint those who liked Recnac. I just hope everyone stays with it long enough to get into the depths of it. I do plan to plunge you all into the deep end soon.), **therese, ratgirl, SillyGillie, HG/HrRFan2ever **(no wandless magic, I assure you. Sorry! But trust me, it's for the best.), **HappiGoLucki616 **(yay! I'm glad you liked the Anna/Snape scene.)


	9. Flawed Perfection

Harry- 

_How did the date go, you ask? (I know you're not a girl, but humor me for a while.) Well, it was really nice. Roger was great: handsome, nice, blah blah blah, but to tell you the truth, I couldn't concentrate the whole night. I felt bad, but my mind just kept wandering. I couldn't stop thinking that something wasn't right about everything. I've always dreamed of Roger being this sweet, clumsy, loveable bloke who in the future, would always do these goofy things where I would just laugh and joke with him that I loved him no matter how many things he goofed up. And he would smile this crooked, playful, shy smile and would blush whenever I would plant a quick kiss on his cheek. And I imagined him doing these sweet things for me that would sometimes work out, sometimes not, but we could always laugh about it if it didn't. I imagined he and I burning dinner or getting caught in a rainstorm unprepared or him being late meeting me at a restaurant and feeling so guilty about making us lose our reservations, but we'd order take out and go home and have a great time anyways. But I was sitting there and I realized that Roger wasn't that person. He would never mess up. He's far too perfect to do something like that. He'd never be late; he'd never burn dinner; everything he'd do for me would turn out exactly as planned and if it ever rained, he's the type of person that would always have an umbrella. He doesn't have a crooked smile, his is very symmetrical and white and not shy at all. He's not the type to blush at compliments or stolen kisses. If things ever went wrong, I don't think he'd be able to laugh it out because he needs things to be as perfect as he is. Everyone thinks I set my sights so high when I told them I wanted Roger, but really, I hadn't set my sights high enough. I went after Roger, a mere shadow of the person I modeled my fantasy after. It was never Roger I was in love with all along, but you helped me figure out who it was that I really wanted._

_I always thought fate would show me the path, and it did, but it didn't make it all that obvious. I guess you sometimes have to put in some effort into figuring stuff out for yourself as well, along with getting what you want. That's why, I've just gotten back from Neville's house, where, in an act of extreme bravery on my part, if I do say so myself, I walked right up to him, said, "Neville, I think I love you," and snogged him senseless. It was so wonderful and after I pulled away, he smiled at me with a crooked smile and he blushed and I knew he was the one, and had been the one all along. So, we're officially a couple now. I've set my sights higher, and I definitely got what I wanted. Fate works in strange ways, but as I always tell you, love will prevail in the end. Now it's time for you and Ginny to get together! Talk to you soon!_

_Eloise_

Harry laughed with delight, even though he wasn't sure he had needed all the gory details of Eloise's girly thoughts, and opened the second letter.

Harry- 

_Merlin's beard, you'll never guess what happened. Eloise kissed me! She chose me over Roger! Thought you ought to know! Talk to you soon!_

_-Neville_

Harry shook his head with a grin, quickly pulling out some parchment to send congratulations out to both of them. He ended Eloise's letter with, "It looks to me like you chose your own fate."

IiIiIiIiI

The next day, Harry showed up at Snape Manor since Snape was forcing Draco and him to make some of the potions they'd be brewing next year. He wanted to make sure Harry especially didn't fall behind, since he had never been a great Potions student except for that one fluky year.

But Snape quickly informed him that Laura had taken Draco and Anna to a play that Snape had no desire to see.

"Oh, okay, so I'll come back some other time," Harry said, but Snape stopped him.

"Draco's already made the potion. It was the conditions he had to meet in order to go out today. You still have to make it. Now, let's go to my lab," he said firmly.

Harry followed him somewhat reluctantly. It was weird to be with the Potions master for so long without Draco there and Harry was slightly afraid he would resort to picking on Harry again.

Surprisingly, however, he didn't. Snape was, in fact, very patient with Harry and as they waited for different ingredients to simmer, they somehow got around to talking about random things, including Snape's new relationship with Laura.

"Well, it seems to be going great so far, even if Anna thinks you look like a vampire," Harry laughed. Snape glared at him.

"Sure it's going well now, but that's precisely when these things are bound to fail," Snape said bitterly.

"You do realize that life's sole goal is not to screw you over, right?" Harry asked. "Things are going great now and they'll keep going that way," he assured him.

"How do you know?" Snape asked skeptically.

"Because that's just the way these things go. You deserve it, so why not?" Harry said with a shrug.

"I don't understand you. How can you be so optimistic about life when it just keeps dealing you bad hands?" Snape commented.

Harry shrugged with a smile. "Well, look where I've ended up. My life's perfect now."

"Perfect? Life's never perfect, especially not yours," Snape said with a snort.

Harry thought about it momentarily. "You're right. Life's never perfect, but that's what makes it life. I guess it's more of a flawed perfection, but really, it's better that way."

Snape looked at him skeptically. "Oh really? Well I'd love to hear how you're going to argue _that_ point."

"Well, the way I see it, I have money and fame at my fingertips. I had the most popular girl in school after me. What do most people think of as the perfect life? Fame and fortune. I could indulge in both and lead the so-called 'perfect' life, but it would be so boring and would be the furthest thing from what I want in life. I think the perfect life is one where you have people who you love and who love you in return, but you then have to deal with all the complications that come with that. You have their problems as well as your own, you can't just pay them off when you get into fights, and you risk getting hurt. So, if you want a _real_ life, you have to deal with the bad, but with the bad you get the good."

"Well, that may work in you little optimistic view of the world, but that doesn't work with everyone. Some people just keep getting the bad without the good," Snape said bitterly. Harry could tell he was speaking about his own life.

"I think it's just that sometimes the flaws can seem so overwhelming that you forget how to see the good, and then you get so scared that everything that comes along might be bad, because you just don't think you can take one more bad thing, so you push it away whether it's good or not because you just can't tell."

Snape looked at him with a sideways glance.

"So then what happens? You just get stuck like that?" he asked.

"Some people do. I think at that point you're stuck unless somebody, either intentionally or not, helps you out of it. It's just a question of whether or not they get to you before you completely give up."

Snape considered this idea. "When did you become the philosopher?"

"Your class. I have to keep my mind entertained with _something_," Harry said with a shrug.

Snape's glare was met with a cheeky grin.

IiIiIiIiI

It was another lazy day around the Lighthouse. Harry and Hermione lay sideways on Harry's bed with their bare feet propped up on the windowsill as Ron wandered around Harry's room.

"Okay, see that one there?" Hermione said pointing to a cloud passing by. "I'm seeing a rabbit. There's the head and the ears and the fluffy tail at the end."

"I see it," Harry said in agreement. "Though it _is_ a deformed rabbit. I'm seeing five feet."

"Oh poor thing, it must have had such a hard life," Hermione said with a giggle.

"It probably got made fun of by all the other cloud bunnies," Harry said in mock sympathy.

"And now he just floats around the sky, searching for acceptance," Hermione said with a sigh. The two looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Okay, that one looks like a cake with some candles on top," Harry said pointing to a new one.

"Alright, give me a second to try to see that one," said Hermione, cocking her head to the side.

"Harry what's this?" Ron asked curiously.

Harry tilted his head back so he was looking at Ron upside down. He was holding up a folded piece of paper.

"I dunno," he said nonchalantly, looking back out the window.

"Can I look at it?" he asked.

"Sure," Harry said dismissively.

"Okay, I see it now. You're right. Definite cake with candles," Hermione said.

"Hmm…Eloise's Plan for Harry's Future," Ron read aloud as he continued to unfold it. Harry's eyebrows knitted momentarily before he remembered what was on the paper. The blood instantly drained from his face.

"Ron, don't read that!" he yelled suddenly, flipping over on the bed and standing up on top of it.

"Why not? I want to know what it is now. I want to see what your future's like," he said and unfolded it completely.

Harry jumped off the bed and raced toward Ron who darted to the side, attempting to read the paper as he ran around Harry's room.

"Ron! Give it back!" he yelled, tackling the redhead to the ground, but Ron was already reading it in surprise.

_Eloise's Wonderful Plan for Harry's Future_

_Harry and Ginny Potter_

_**Marriage Proposal**__: to be written when Harry comes out of denial_

_**Marriage**_

_o. Age: 22 and 21_

_o. Location: a deserted tropical beach that reporters and rabid fans can't get to_

_o. Small wedding, only close friends_

_o. Best man: Ron_

_o. Maid of honor: Hermione_

_o. Groomsmen: Neville, (maybe Ron's brothers? The twins?)_

_o. Bridesmaids: Eloise (others to be added)_

_**Honeymoon**__: travel around world_

_**Residence**__: England (must stay close to friends of course)_

_**Kids**__: Five. Four close in age, one younger, but age will match with friends' kids so they can play_

_1. Boy: Alexander_

_2. Boy: Brian_

_3. Girl: Kenzie_

_4. Boy: James_

_5. Girl: Eloise (the cute one)_

Ron looked up at him in surprise and Harry cringed. Ron handed the paper to a very curious Hermione.

Harry backed away from Ron warily.

"Er…Eloise has a bit of an overactive imagination."

"I thought you were still in denial," Ron said with a grin. "Five kids, eh? Have you run that idea by Ginny yet?" he asked mischievously. Harry glared at him.

"Don't you even start," he said warningly.

"Oh Harry, will I really get to be the maid of honor?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Of course," Harry said with a sigh.

"How did you come up with the names?" she asked curiously.

"I didn't, Eloise did."

"Well, do you think you really will name your kids some of these?"

Harry blushed. "Hermione, I'm not even sixteen yet. I haven't even had a girlfriend yet. I think it's a little early to be talking of kids," he said in exasperation. Ron laughed at him, so Harry smirked at him evilly. "Of course, you two are a couple. Maybe _you_ should be discussing your future. Let's see, you'll have to have a bigger wedding to fit all the relatives, and you'll have to keep the big family Weasley tradition alive, so I'd say you can have five or six kids yourselves."

Ron looked at him in mortification and Hermione blushed violently, but Harry continued.

"Let's see, what shall we name the kids?" Harry said in mock thoughtfulness. Ron made to hit him on the head with a rolled up Quidditch magazine, but Harry dodged with a grin. "Oh you want one named after a Quidditch player, Ron? How about Viktor? Then, if it's a girl, you could name her Vicky!"

His two friends nodded at each other and tackled him to the ground. Harry laughed helplessly as Hermione began poking his sides.

"And you…ahahah…have to…ahhh!…name one after their dear…hahaha stop…uncle Harry!" he gasped, finally wriggling out of their gasp.

He raced out of his room and used the banister to make the sharp turn down the staircase.

His friends chased right after him, yelling that he was going down.

"Have you decided how you're going to propose, Ron?" Harry yelled over his shoulder, causing Ron's face to go bright red as he put on an extra burst of speed.

Harry laughed and raced out the front door. Hermione and Ron raced behind him as he ran through the tall grass, into the thick trees. He followed the dirt trail that they had, by now, been down several times.

The laughter of the three echoed through the small forest as they trailed after Harry to the pond they had discovered earlier that summer.

Harry ran to the very edge, shoving his glasses into his pocket at the last second and jumped. He landed in the deep part in all his clothes. The water felt nice and cool around him as he furiously dog paddled to the surface.

Just as his head broke the surface, Ron cannonballed in next to him, causing a wave of water to splash over Harry's head.

The two had a brief splash fight, when they realized that Hermione was simply sitting at the edge with her feet dipped in.

"Come in, 'Mione!" Ron called.

"Ha! I don't think so. It's too cold," she said firmly.

"You get used to it quickly," Harry assured her. "Besides, it's so hot out there that it feels good."

Hermione shook her head adamantly. Harry and Ron looked at each other and nodded. They both took deep breaths and slid under the water.

Hermione immediately pulled her feet out of the water and tried to look through the murky surface for them but couldn't even see their shadows. She backed away from the edge a bit, but felt compelled to stay. She knew that Harry wasn't a great swimmer and wanted to make sure he came up okay.

Suddenly, the two boys emerged from the water at the edge and quickly climbed out. Hermione turned to run with a squeak, but Ron caught her, hugging her from behind and getting her all wet.

"Ahh! Ron!" she cried indignantly as the cold water dripped down her neck. He nuzzled his hair all over the side of her face with a laugh. He stuck his arms under hers as Harry lifted her feet into the air with an evil grin.

"Don't you dare! Put me down or you two will be in so much trouble!" she shrieked as they carried her to the edge.

"All right Har," Ron said. The two swung her back and tossed her far out into the pond as she screamed.

She came up looking at them murderously. They both cannonballed in on either side of her, drenching her once again.

They splashed around until Hermione shrieked and looked down into the murky water.

"I think I just stepped on a fish. A big fish!" she screamed in disgust.

"There aren't any fish in here, 'Mione, Sirius dug this himself a while ago," Harry assured her, but just then, something large and slimy brushed against his leg. "Gahhh!" he sputtered. "Okay, so I think he put one in."

"I just felt it again!" Hermione screamed. Ron was next to feel it.

The three instantly scrambled out of the pond and raced back through the forest.

When they broke through the trees into the field, the three collapsed into the grass in laughter. They scooted so their heads were together, looking up at the sky.

"Hey, look. That one looks like Buckbeak!" Ron said pointing up at a cloud.

IiIiIiIiI

"Why is it so dark up here?" Harry asked as he stepped onto the second story landing and the lights suddenly shut off downstairs. The adults were at another Order meeting and Harry was, as usual, at the Burrow. He had been walking upstairs with Ron, but had never remembered the house being so dark. He couldn't see anything. "Ron?" he prompted, but was only answered with silence. He turned around and though he couldn't see, he could sense the absence behind him. "Ron?"

He turned all around, squinting through the darkness. He felt his way to the wall and began groping for a light switch of some sort. For the first time he wondered if the Burrow even had light switches since they didn't have conventional light bulbs. He had always taken it for granted that the light in a room or hall always seemed to be just as bright as he needed it, except for now of course.

"Oh very funny Ron," he snapped. Images of the scary movie he had seen with Ginny were flashing through his mind. The more he tried _not_ to think about the movie, the more he remembered it. "Bloody hilarious," he muttered. Silence bore down upon him. "Ron, come out, this isn't…"

"Harry?" a voice called out in relief from over where he believed the stairs to be.

"Ginny?" he called back. "Where are you?" he asked quietly, not quite sure why he was lowering his voice. He edged his way forward and smacked into someone, nearly causing him to jump out of his skin.

"Right here," came a hushed voice right in front of him. "You realize they're trying to scare us because of that movie, right?" she asked timidly.

"Yeah," he said softly. He called out into the darkness, "And it's not working!"

"It's not?" Ginny whispered.

"It so is," Harry whispered back.

"Er, let's try to make it to my room. If they're already controlling the lights in there, at least I have some candles we could use," she said quietly. Harry felt her hand hit his forearm and feel its way down to his hand, taking it in hers. She slowly led the way to the stairs.

"Oh Merlin, I just remembered the scene where the power goes out and the guy gets pulled into the closet and brutally murdered," Ginny said quietly.

"Oh thanks, I was trying to get myself _not_ remembering scenes from the movie," Harry said sarcastically. "Ron, when I find you, you're a dead man," he called.

He suddenly felt Ginny's hand jerk in his as she stumbled. She screamed and backed up into him, desperately grabbing at his shirt.

"She grabbed my ankle," she shrieked.

"I think you just tripped on something," Harry said, trying to sound fearless and failing miserably.

"Let's just get out of here," Ginny said, frightened. She pulled him along at a quicker pace. She smacked into a wall before finally finding the staircase. The two practically raced up the stairs.

They were halfway down the hall toward Ginny's room when Ginny froze, causing Harry to run into her from behind, nearly sending them both crashing to the ground.

"What?" Harry asked breathlessly, but Ginny clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Did you hear that?" she hissed.

The two stood there for several moments, straining to hear anything, but there wasn't another sound to be heard. Ginny took Harry's hand again and the two ran to Ginny's room, shutting the door behind them.

"Damn, they've messed with the lights in here too," she groaned. "Okay, wait, just let me find my candles," she said. Harry heard a small bang and Ginny cursed. "Ow, that was my nightstand."

"I'm going to kill Ron," Harry muttered.

"And Fred and George," Ginny added. "They're not innocent in this, I can assure you."

Both gasped as they heard a slow scratching sound.

"What's that?" Harry asked nervously.

"Oh Merlin. Oh Merlin," Ginny chanted in terror.

Suddenly, the closet door burst open and three figures jumped out screaming.

Ginny and Harry started screaming as well.

There was a smacking sound and a loud curse.

Finally the lights turned back on to reveal the three Weasley boys laughing hysterically. George was holding a hand to his head.

"You threw something at me!" he said indignantly to his sister.

"You bet your arse I did," Ginny shrieked angrily.

"That was _not_ funny!" Harry said with a glare.

"That's because…that's because," Ron gasped, barely able to breathe from laughing so hard, which only made the twins laugh harder. "That's because you didn't see your face."

"Oh, you guys are going down," Harry said. "We're going to get you back so bad."

The Weasley boys only laughed harder.

"Come on, Ginny. Let's go plot our revenge," he said. Ginny shot another glare at her brothers before following Harry out into the now-lighted hall.

IiIiIiIiI

Snape was in a foul mood, there was no way around it. He had always had a bad temper and it was flaring up. He had just spoken with Dumbledore who had told him that he had reason to believe that the Death Eaters were becoming more organized and that several key Death Eater prisoners in Azkaban had disappeared. As soon as the Ministry had discovered the disappearance, they quickly moved the remaining Death Eaters to another prison with guards whose loyalty wasn't in question, but if the Ministry had only listened to Dumbledore earlier, they wouldn't even be missing the ones they were. With all their recent efforts, they weren't any closer to finding the Death Eater's headquarters. Even the Death Eaters they had captured didn't know where they were located. Snape was very well aware of why. Whenever Voldemort had summoned his Death Eaters, they simply touched their scars and Apparated and were automatically brought to their master. The most Snape ever knew about the locations was that they were always surrounded by dense trees, most likely far away from all civilization and near impossible to find.

Draco had been occasionally asking him to go to Malfoy Manor to get his things, but Snape kept having to deny him. Snape couldn't bring himself to tell Draco the reasons behind it. It was simple really. The Order was sure that Lucius Malfoy would kill his son if he had the chance and there was no telling what traps could be laid out for Draco. His things could have been cursed for all they knew. Yet how do you tell a teenager that their father wants to kill them? In time, the Order would be able to clear out Draco's things and check them over for contamination curses, but they didn't yet want to touch anything in the house, having set alarms that would inform them the instant Lucius stepped into the house. They were sure the man would be back for some of his things, unless, of course, he heard that the Order or the Ministry had been poking around the place too much. Each time Draco asked him, it just stressed him out a little more.

All he wanted to do at that moment was be alone, but not only was Draco there, but Harry as well. He had tried to convince the two to go over to the Lighthouse, but Draco flat-out refused, since the two were in the middle of a game of chess, and Harry just rolled his eyes at Snape's sarcastic comments about annoying teenagers. Lately, he had actually thought he liked Harry's confidence around him, but today, it was just incredibly annoying and struck him as arrogance.

He could have just left the living room, but he had been there first and this was _his_ house! Each time a chess piece smashed another to pieces, the loud noise associated with it made Snape's head throb.

One of Draco's castles smashed one of Harry's pawns and Harry laughed loudly as the other pawns were cursing Draco out.

"Ooh Dray, those are fighting words," Harry chuckled. "I think my pawns want to exact revenge for their friend."

"Why don't you two go somewhere where annoying noises are the norm. The Lighthouse should be perfect," Snape growled.

Draco laughed while Harry looked over at the professor and rolled his eyes before the two went back to their game. Snape sneered at him when he wasn't looking. He remembered how James Potter, back in school, used to roll his eyes every time Snape had spoken in class. Popular, perfect Potter. Sometimes Harry just looked too much like his father for Snape to stand.

He looked over at that messy raven-hair, and those stupid glasses. He began to forget what the differences were supposed to be between James and Harry. Snape scowled as he watched Harry make sarcastic comments to Draco, ignoring the fact that his godson was joking back, not taking any offense at all. He tried to tell himself that Harry was different, but all he could think of was Harry's look-alike father sneering over at him. He could only remember the jeering laughter from the crowds of his peers inspired by sarcastic comments coming from a sixteen-year-old James's mouth.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

He stood up sharply.

"Potter," he snapped.

Harry looked up in surprise. He hadn't heard Snape call him by his surname or use that hateful tone with him for a long time.

"Yeah?" he asked, hoping he had just been imagining the annoyance in the man's voice.

"That's sir, to you. I am sick and tired of you talking back to me in that disrespectful tone. I am your professor and you shall treat me with respect, understood?" he sneered. The two boys looked up at him in surprise. Harry's eyes shined with hurt.

"Yes sir," he muttered, feeling humiliated for ever thinking that Snape thought of him as anything more than his most-hated student.

"Sev, what the hell?" Draco asked, utterly bewildered by the sudden alteration his godfather's attitude toward Harry. Snape, however, deftly ignored him and looked tersely at Harry.

"I believe you have overstayed your welcome," he said coldly.

"Have I done something wrong?" Harry asked in confusion. "I didn't mean to…"

Snape strode over and loomed menacingly over him as Harry sat nervously on the floor.

"You are playing on my last nerve, Potter. Can't you tell you aren't wanted here, or are you able to get that through your thick skull? Or perhaps you fancy that no one could ever get tired of having the famous Harry Potter showing up at their house at all hours, and staying as long as he pleases," he said bitterly. "I knew you had absolutely horrid, low-class manners, as you show at the dinner table, but I hadn't realized they were coupled with an arrogance not even your father could have achieved."

Draco gaped at him in disbelief. It was as if they had suddenly gone back a year in time.

Harry nodded, looking miserably down at his lap.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly after a moment. "I didn't realize I was such an inconvenience."

"I am glad to enlighten you, _Potter_."

Harry climbed to his feet and said a sad goodbye to Draco. He walked over to the fireplace, Snape's hateful gaze on him the entire time, and took a pinch of Floo powder.

Just before Flooing away, Harry's emerald eyes flicked up and met Snape's. They were filled with such sadness and hurt, that they snapped Snape back to reality. Snape suddenly realized what he had just done, but Harry had already disappeared.

"Sev, what the bloody hell was that?!" Draco yelled, jumping to his feet.

Snape put on an indifferent expression and sat back down in his chair, picking up his book.

"No, Sev, put the book down and answer me! What the hell? Why did you yell at him like that?" Draco shouted angrily.

"I just lost my temper. He'll get over it," Snape said dismissively.

"You were thinking about his father again, weren't you?" Draco said accusingly.

Snape glared at him in response.

"Merlin's beard, Sev! Harry isn't his dad! Just like I'm not my dad and you're not your dad, otherwise we'd be Death Eaters and Harry would be an arrogant bully, but _we're_ not and _he's_ not. And how can you just say he'll get over it? He's not a moron, Sev. He's not just going to forget this!" Draco raved.

"Draco, don't worry about it," Snape said warningly. "I've been acting like that to him in Potions classes for years and he's yet to have a mental breakdown because of it," he said in a sarcastic tone that only seemed to fuel his godson's anger.

"You know, you're just like everyone else. You just think he's some idol that doesn't let anything bother him. You think that just because he's famous means that he's not allowed to be hurt by things people say and do, like he's not allowed to just be a person but he always has to be some strong hero," Draco yelled heatedly.

"Draco, that is enough. I do not think that and you know it," Snape said sharply.

"Yes you do! Yes you do! But you're even worse because you think that you have some right to act any way you please toward him just because his dad was mean to you! Merlin, if you're mad at anyone you should be mad at me! I'm the one who bullied him and his stupid friends for five years! I'm this generation's James Potter!" Draco bellowed.

"No you're not! Don't be stupid, Draco," Snape snapped.

"Oh _I'm _the one being stupid. You know what, I'm right. I really am like James Potter, and you know what that makes Harry? The one that I bullied? That would make him this generation's you. So really, maybe it's me you want to be kicking out of your house."

"Draco, I would never kick you out of this house and you know it! Now stop being ridiculous. You are nothing like James Potter and Potter is nothing like me. Potter will get over it like he has a thousand times before, and when he comes tomorrow to go to the Quidditch game, you'll see that back to his energetic, carefree little self," Snape said with a slight sneer. Draco glared at him.

"Don't you dare go back to calling him Potter. I hope you realize that you've turned into James Potter yourself, picking on people who don't deserve it," he said coldly. Before Snape could get past his shock at Draco's words, the young blonde strode angrily from the room, shouting back over his shoulder, "If you've chased away my one real friend, I'll never forgive you!"

There was loud stomping and the sound of a door slamming overhead.

Snape sat in silent shock at his godson's accusations. They were ridiculous really; he was nothing like James Potter. Harry wasn't really hurt. Snape would just act like nothing happened when Harry came over the next day for the Quidditch match they were going to and they could both just forget it ever happened. Harry had put aside all the cruel things Draco had said to him in the past, and he had done the same with Snape. He could do it again. That was Harry.

IiIiIiIiI

But Harry didn't show up the next day. When it was time to go, Draco came down the stairs with a cold expression.

"I just talked to Harry. He's not coming. He said you're right, that he's been really inconsiderate about butting into everything. Doesn't want to bother you. He told me to tell you he forgot he had promised to help Sirius with something," Draco said coldly to his godfather before picking up Anna who was tugging at his robes.

"Don't be sad Draco, we get to see the Seekers and Harry's going to meet us there," she said confidently, stroking his hair lovingly as if she were petting a cat.

"Harry's not coming, Anna," Draco informed her, striding past Snape and Laura.

"Yes he is. He wouldn't miss the Seekers. Harry loves the Seekers," she said firmly.

"Yes he does," Draco said with a pointed look at his godfather. Snape was looking slightly guilty and a little angry. Laura put a comforting hand on his arm.

"He could've at least shown up. Now he's gone and ruined everybody's mood," Snape said quietly to Laura who had heard about the incident from both points of view.

"It probably would have been worse if he had come, Sev. It would be far more tense," she said quietly. "I think we should call off the game for today. Nobody's in the mood for it. Let's just go out to lunch instead and go to the next match when this little problem has been solved, alright?"

Draco and Snape sighed and nodded in agreement. Anna looked around in confusion.

"We're not going?" she asked, looking as if she was trying to figure out how to feel about this. "Do you want to go, Sev?"

"Not today, Anna," Snape said tiredly.

"Then I don't want to go either," she announced proudly. "Is Harry still coming though?"

"Not today, darling," Laura said.

"Why not?" she asked disappointedly.

"Because somebody made him feel like he wasn't wanted," Draco said with a meaningful glare at his godfather.

"Why?" Anna asked.

"Because this person doesn't see Harry as a human being. He thinks Harry can be used as an outlet for his anger without there being any repercussions, and a part of him believes Harry deserves it, even when he doesn't," Draco said stiffly. Snape looked at him with an unreadable expression.

Anna just looked at Draco in confusion, not understanding what he had just said.

Laura looked between the two males and walked over to Draco, gently taking Anna from his arms.

"You know, I think Anna and I are going to have a girls' day out," she said.

"No, you don't…" Snape started but Laura cut him off.

"I think you two need to work some things out with a nice long talk. We'll reschedule Quidditch for another day," she said, giving Draco a one-armed hug before bidding them farewell and Flooing away.

Snape and Draco stood there in silence for a few minutes.

"Draco, look, I apologize for what I did yesterday," Snape said with a sigh.

"Why are you apologizing to _me_? Don't say you're sorry unless you're _really_ sorry. And I don't think you can be really sorry until you do something about it," Draco said sternly.

"You don't understand, Draco. I can't just apologize to Harry," Snape said.

"And why the hell not?" Draco asked in annoyance.

"It's complicated. My relationship with him is not as informal as it is with you. I still need to maintain my authority in order to have his respect."

"Sev, Harry already respects you. Respect isn't something you can get by intimidating people or scaring them or being cruel to them. Respect is something you have to earn, and in _my _book and in _Harry's _book, the only way to do that in a situation like this is to admit when you're wrong, and work to make things right. That's why Harry and I respect each other, because we both have admitted that we've been wrong in the past and have worked to make up for it. It's called taking responsibility for your actions. If you think that you can just do these things and not try to fix them, then you'll never get Harry's respect and you'll lose mine."

"Draco, it isn't that simple…"

"If you put aside your pride for five seconds, and quit acting like a coward, then it becomes a lot easier than you think," said Draco.

"It's too late for apologies now. It's best to just let things blow over at this point, but next time, I'll apologize, okay?" Snape compromised.

"Next time? There's going to be a next time?" Draco asked incredulously.

"People make mistakes, Draco."

Draco shook his head disappointedly.

"You're not going to even attempt to make things right, are you?"

"Of course I am," Snape protested.

"How?"

"I'll make sure he knows I didn't mean it."

"How?" Draco insisted.

"You said actions speak louder than words, so I'll just show him through the way I act toward him that I didn't mean it."

"Sometimes, people need both, Sev: the actions _and_ the words."

"Harry and I aren't on that level," Snape said.

"You aren't on the level where you treat him like a human being?" Draco asked in annoyance. "You're one of many, then."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"People either treat him like dirt or like some indestructible hero. I can't tell which group you fall into yet," Draco said bitterly. "You know, he mentioned that his godfather never talks to him about anything serious. Nobody does. And I told him that he should go to you if he ever felt like he needed an adult to talk to. He told me you wouldn't want him coming to you but I insisted that you wouldn't mind; that you liked him. Wow, do I feel like an idiot now. I got his hopes up and you just smashed them into pieces. I hope you're pleased."

"You told him that?" Snape asked weakly. He was definitely feeling guilty now.

"Yes. But that was before I knew you'd go and prove him right," Draco said, moving toward the stairs. "Please inform me when you've decided to descend from your pedestal and act like the Severus I thought I knew."

With that, Draco walked stiffly up the stairs and Snape didn't bother calling him back, having nothing to defend himself with any longer. He didn't feel like he deserved to be defended.


	10. Fear

**Author's Note: **You know, you guys always continue to surprise me. I was really expecting a bashing over how Snape acted toward Harry, but a lot of you could understand where he was coming from or at least liked the scene, and nobody seemed to hate me for it, which just shows what completely wonderful readers all you guys are! The scholarship thing went really well, even though I didn't read anything from my fanfiction. I'm so excited for HP3, as I'm sure you are all too. I'm going with over 40 people, all of whom are dressing up. (I'm going as a Slytherin Quidditch Player, even if, in the books, there are no girls on the team. Whatever.) We're having a HP dress up tailgate party in the parking lot of the theater! LOL. Yes, we're dorks, but we're dorks in masses, so there. Ah, I got so sunburnt at the waterslides the other day that I think I may have changed races, or at least nationalities here. (That was not meant as offensive in any way, just so you all know) I can't move my arms very well, either. Once again, karma strikes, getting me back for all I have done and am going to do to Harry. Oh well, I can take the pain! I do it for you guys! Now, on with the fic!

For the next few days, Harry didn't even consider going over to Snape Manor, and Draco soon stopped trying to convince him to, settling for coming over to the Lighthouse instead until Snape came to his senses.

Of course, aside from Harry's reluctance to see the Potions master, the Gryffindor acted as if nothing had even happened. He didn't tell anyone about it, especially not Sirius. He didn't want to cause trouble between the two rivals, and Harry was well aware that they both had hot tempers.

He occupied his mind with light things to keep his mind off of what had happened. He plotted against the Weasley boys with Ginny, contacting Kota and Hermione for help. He played Quidditch with the Weasleys, on a borrowed broom. He tried to train Buckbeak to sit (which soon proved to be a hopeless endeavor), anything to avoid thinking of Snape yelling at him. He cursed himself for letting it bother him so much, but it did bother him.

The humiliation and the pain that came from thinking Snape had liked him and being proved otherwise struck deep. But it was best not to think of such things, and so Harry did his best to push them out of his mind.

"Oh you're here!" Mrs. Stenson exclaimed in surprise as the Weasleys walked into the room.

"I know we're a bit early," Mr. Weasley started apologetically as his children finished coming through.

"Oh don't worry one bit, come on in. Never thought I'd be having guests arrive through the fireplace," she said with a smile.

She motioned them all forward into the living room. The six Weasleys looked around with undisguised awe at all the Muggle gadgets. Mrs. Stenson chuckled.

"I think Rick and Kota are planning to give you all a demonstration of how all this stuff works later. I was going to have Kota and Harry run to the store for some groceries, but Harry said you might want to go to see all the…er…_Muggle_ things," she said with a grin.

Mr. Weasley looked very excited at the prospect.

"So that's where Muggles do their food shopping? Fascinating," he said in awe.

The twins rolled their eyes.

"Well, Remus and Rick are outside chatting. Harry, Kota, and Sirius are in the kitchen. They're supposed to be doing dishes since they made a royal disaster in the kitchen earlier, but it's been a bit difficult to get them to concentrate on the task," she said with a roll of the eyes as she led them to the kitchen. She opened the door and gestured inside to make her point.

The radio was playing quite loudly. There were still dirty dishes near the sink which seemed to be covered in dark brown goo. The three occupants of the kitchen hadn't noticed that anyone was watching. Harry and Kota were rubbing dish soap all over their hands and blowing huge bubbles through their fingers and then trying to hold them in their hands. They were all singing along to the chorus of the song and would intermittently pick up spatulas or spoons and dramatically belt the lyrics into them as if the objects were microphones.

The two teenagers watched with glee as Sirius joked around with some very extravagant dancing, still not noticing the small audience at the door. They laughed as Sirius jumped away from the sink and began tangoing with a cookie sheet. Harry spun around to face him singing loudly into a spatula and froze as he saw the Weasleys in the doorway.

Kota hadn't yet noticed and began doing exaggerated disco moves.

"Er…Sirius?" Harry said with an embarrassed grin. Sirius ignored him and brought the cookie sheet into a dip.

Harry nudged Kota and she slowly turned around with her arm stuck out in front of her holding a plate in some strange mock-disco move. When she caught sight of the Weasleys she shrieked and dropped the plate, which clattered on the ground.

Sirius's head shot up and followed their gaze. In seeing all the laughing redheads, he immediately straightened up and with a God-help-me grin, took a deep bow. The Weasleys all clapped appreciatively and the twins called for an encore. Kota and Harry both groaned in mortification but soon joined them in laughing. The Muggle girl walked over and turned down the music on the radio.

"So, why didn't you two pull those moves at the ball?" George asked with a grin.

"We save them for special occasions," Kota responded with a smirk. "We only bring them out when we feel like embarrassing ourselves shamelessly."

"And whenever we feel like procrastinating doing any actual chores," Harry added, gesturing toward the dishes.

"So do you want to come shopping for food with Harry and I?" she asked excitedly. "There are tons of Muggles there, Mr. Weasley," she added enticingly.

Mr. Weasley chuckled. "Am I really that predictable?"

"Unfortunately so, Dad," George said clapping a hand onto his father's back.

"That's not a bad thing," Hermione protested. Harry and Ron caught each other's eye and grinned. Whenever Hermione had her nose stuck in a book or announced that she was off to the library, the two accused her of being predictable.

"Well, thank you Hermione. At least _somebody's _standing up for me."

"Well, anyone who is brave enough to ride in the car with me behind the wheel can come to the grocery store," Kota announced. "We can take the SUV."

All the Weasley children announced that they were in, along with Hermione and Mr. Weasley.

"And what about the dishes?" Mrs. Stenson asked, gesturing at the pile of dirty ones next to the sink. Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at the mess, muttered something and the dishes began washing themselves.

"I need to learn that one," Sirius muttered.

Harry and Kota quickly rinsed the soap off their hands. Kota got the grocery list and credit card from her mother and they all went out to the driveway and hopped in the car, with Kota in the driver's seat and Mr. Weasley next to her, the rest of the kids in the back.

"I can't believe you can drive!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's so wicked!" George added. "We've driven a flying car before, but then Ron and Harry lost it." The two boys grinned guiltily. "Of course, it was easier to drive, because you didn't have to really worry about hitting anything except for birds." Kota grinned into the rearview mirror as they drove along.

"Harry can drive a bit as well. I started teaching him last winter," she said with a giggle. "Right Harry?"

"Yeah, it didn't go over too well," Harry admitted with a sheepish grin. "But it wasn't my fault," he said firmly.

"Yes it was. You were the one who started joking about that van in the parking lot having a masked murderer inside in the middle of the night."

"Yeah, but you were the one who thought you actually saw a person coming out of it," he reminded her. His voice turned into a mimic of Kota. "_Harry, I think I saw someone! He's coming! He's going to chop our heads off with an axe!_"

"Oh like you weren't scared Mr. '_Oh my God! Get us out of here! How do you drive this thing?!_'" Kota said, now mimicking Harry. The rest of the car was now laughing at the story.

"Maybe we should hear the story from the beginning," Hermione suggested.

Kota chuckled. "Well, I decided to teach Harry how to drive, but since he doesn't have a license, it's a bit, er…"

"Illegal?" Harry volunteered.

"Yeah. So we decided to go to a deserted parking lot in the middle of the night to avoid the police and other things that Harry might run over."

"Hey!" Harry interrupted indignantly. Kota ignored him.

"So I drove there and then we switched seats and I started explaining what different things were, and just because I was slightly teasing Harry…"

"Slightly teasing? '_Okay Harry, this is what they call a mirror. You look in it and see things behind you. Can you say mirror? Mir-ror,_'" Harry scoffed.

"Hey, it was funny. Anyways, our dear dark-haired friend thought it would be amusing to point out a creepy-looking van that was parked sort of near us. One of the street lights was sort of flickery and we kind of let our imaginations run away with us…"

"I just mentioned that it was probably a serial killer's and that the murderer had most likely crept up to the car already and was crouching right outside one of our doors. Only then does she inform me that her locks don't work from the inside," Harry explained.

"And we could have gotten out of there but Harry wouldn't switch seats with me so we could drive," said Kota. Harry gaped at her incredulously.

"That's because you wanted me to get out of the car and run around while you slid over! You wanted to sacrifice me to the killer!"

"You know what Harry? Sometimes you just gotta take one for the team," said Kota. Everybody laughed.

"So then what happened?" Ron asked curiously. Harry blushed slightly.

"Er…well then we heard a small crash, probably from a cat knocking something over, but Harry freaked," Kota explained.

"I freaked?? YOU freaked!!"

"It was a group freakage, all right?" Kota exclaimed with a glare back to Harry in the rearview mirror.

"Well you were the one who grabbed the wheel and started screaming at the top of your lungs for me to step on the gas," said Harry, indignantly.

"Well you were the one who listened to me! And I never meant for you to step on the gas so hard. Besides, then you tried to grab the wheel from me," Kota reminded him.

"That's because you were looking behind us while you were steering!"

"Somehow this doesn't sound like it would be all that safe," Mr. Weasley piped in.

"Oh it was fine," Harry said nonchalantly, "until we hit the tree," he added sheepishly.

"Not hard, just a scratch," Kota added. "Just don't mention it to my parents because they think a really aggressive jogger swiped it or something."

Finally they arrived and piled out of the car.

The Weasleys were amazed when the automatic doors opened, revealing a Muggle-wonderland inside. Kota, Harry, and Hermione exchanged grins as the redheads looked about in wonder.

Kota steered the basket down the first isle.

"Alright, Harry, grab some bread," Kota instructed him. The two of them were familiar with the supermarket and therefore decided to take over the actual shopping themselves, especially since the Weasleys were busy gaping and giggling at all things Muggle.

"Bread…check," Harry announced as he set a loaf into the cart.

"Harry what is that line for?" Mr. Weasley asked eagerly.

"That's the pharmacy. It's where you get medicine. They're mostly pills though, not potions," he explained as he grabbed some milk and put it in the cart.

"Amazing, just amazing," the adult Weasley muttered.

Ron came up to him chuckling. "Harry look, that man's talking to himself!" he said quietly.

Harry grinned when he saw the man Ron was talking about.

"No he's not," Hermione cut in, "he has an ear and mouth piece attached to his cell phone. See that wire? He's listening to the person through the thing in his ear and talking back to them through that part near his mouth," she explained.

Ron looked at the wire in wonder. "Seriously? Woah. That's brilliant!"

"Genius!" said Fred, who had been listening. He ran over to tell his dad and George that the man wasn't actually schizophrenic. Ron and Ginny were caught up eavesdropping on two teenage boys arguing over rides at a theme park.

Hermione and Kota went down an aisle, chatting about Muggle songs, while Harry was sent down the next aisle to grab some tomato sauce. He was looking for the brand Kota had told him to get when he heard a familiar voice that caused him to freeze.

"No Dudders, honey, sweetie. We can't get magazines all the time. They cost a lot of money," came a sickly sweet voice.

Harry's head shot up and sure enough, he saw Dudley whining and stomping his foot as he held a pile of magazines out to Aunt Petunia, who was wearing a rather large hat.

Harry quickly whipped around so his back was facing his former family. He briskly walked out of the aisle and quickly found Hermione and Kota in the next one.

"Could you find the sauce?" Kota asked when she saw him empty-handed.

"Is something the matter?" Hermione asked in seeing his expression.

"Erm…can we go?" he asked.

"Sure, as soon as we finish getting the groceries," Kota said with a bit of a confused expression.

"No, I mean, now. Can we go _now_?" he pleaded, looking over his shoulder.

"Harry, what's the matter?" Hermione asked worriedly. Harry opened his mouth to speak but froze, looking past the girls' shoulders.

"You!" Aunt Petunia spat as she caught sight of him. The two girls whipped around to face Harry's relatives. Dudley and Kota glared at each other intensely.

"Hey fatty, found any friends yet besides my pathetic cousin or are you just too much of a loser to find anyone else?" Dudley sneered at Kota.

"Hey asshole, beat up any little kids lately, or are you too busy doing drugs in the alley?" Kota retorted. Dudley's eyes widened momentarily and he snuck a quick glance at his mother. Lucky for him, his mum wasn't paying attention, but was glaring at Harry with intense hatred.

"What are you doing back here you little freak?" she hissed at Harry. Hermione's jaw dropped, but nobody noticed.

"I wasn't aware you owned the place," Harry said defiantly. Without his uncle there, the other two didn't scare him.

"You are not welcome in this neighborhood," she said with a scowl.

"Oh yes he is," Kota said. "He's staying with us and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Are you so sure about that missy?" Aunt Petunia asked ominously. Hermione decided that this was getting too out of hand and ran to get Mr. Weasley.

"Don't _missy_ me. Why don't you go complain about it to your husband, or do they allow prison visits for child abusers?"

Aunt Petunia's eyebrow shot up and Dudley opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when his mother quickly whispered something into his ear.

"Oh that's really mature, let's all tell secrets to each other. We're really jealous I'm sure," Kota said patronizingly.

Aunt Petunia shot Harry an evil look. "Oh Harry deserved everything he got," she leaned close to him and hissed in his face, "and everything he's going to get."

Harry looked at her in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

"It means that nasty little things like you always get their comeuppance," she said threateningly.

"Yeah, better watch your back, Harry," Dudley said wickedly.

"Better watch your weight, Dudley," Harry retorted.

"Listen boy, the fact that you are even alive is an abomination and a curse," Aunt Petunia spat. "Your death was a punishment from God for being such a little freak with all your witchcraft. It was a gift to us for having to put up with you for so long! And whatever brought you back was the work of evil."

Harry glared daggers at his aunt. Why she was going on about all this religious stuff was beyond him since she wasn't religious, but his aunt seemed firm in her beliefs about this.

He didn't realize that Hermione had returned with the Weasleys until a hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked up to see Mr. Weasley standing next to him, looking furious. Aunt Petunia looked up in surprise and jumped with a shriek. Dudley paled in seeing the Weasley boys, remembering the Ton Tongue Toffee incident quite clearly.

"Get out," Mr. Weasley growled, fuming. "Get out of this store right now before I hex you so hard your ancestors will feel it."

His children and Harry looked at him in surprise, never having seen him so angry.

Aunt Petunia stuck her nose up in the air and glared at the entourage in front of her.

"Come along, Dudley. We'll come back when there's no _filth_ dirtying up the place," she said snootily.

Dudley sneered at Harry and Kota, the latter who stuck her middle finger up at him.

"You'll be sorry, boy, for everything you've done to ruin my family," Aunt Petunia said maliciously before grabbing Dudley's hand and hurriedly leading him away.

Ron grabbed a can from the shelf and made to chuck it at Harry's aunt's head, but Harry stopped him.

"Don't, Ron, it's not worth it," he said with a sigh. He turned back to Kota. "Right, then, I'm going to go find that sauce."

He briskly walked off. Hermione gestured for Ron to stay there and jogged off after him.

The rest looked at each other with grim expressions.

"Well, let's not let it ruin our night," Mr. Weasley said with some effort to get the anger out of his voice. "Let's finish up the shopping and get back."

Hermione caught up with Harry in the next aisle.

"Hey, 'Mione, do you remember if Kota wanted Original or Chunky?" he asked, holding up two jars.

"Harry," she said softly, "are you alright?"

"Of course," Harry said brightly, though his smile didn't reach his eyes. "It doesn't bother me, really."

"Harry…"

"Seriously, 'Mione, it's fine," he said firmly, avoiding her eyes.

"I didn't know your aunt was so horrible," she said apologetically.

"Yeah, well, she is, okay? Just drop it!" he snapped. He winced at how mean he had sounded. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to snap at you."

Hermione smiled at him comfortingly. "Ah, I think I can let it slide."

She pulled Harry into a hug. "Don't listen to her, Harry. You're the best."

Harry pulled away and rolled his eyes with a laugh. "Oh Merlin, don't get all mushy on me, 'Mione."

Hermione ruffled his hair playfully.

"Hey!" he cried indignantly. "It's messy enough, thank you. Now, which one," he asked, holding up the two jars. She picked out Original and walked with Harry back to Kota, who had the basket.

They finished up the shopping quickly and stood in the long line at the check out.

"So, guys, tonight, we're watching a scary movie," Kota said excitedly, trying to get the focus off of what happened earlier. Harry, Ginny, and Hermione exchanged a knowing look.

Fred, George, and Ron rolled their eyes.

"Is this one as scary as the one that freaked out wittle Hawwy and Ginnygins so bad?" Fred teased.

"Not quite. _Deathwish_, the movie that Harry and Ginny saw, was scarier, I would say, though this one's a close second," Kota said thoughtfully.

A small group of teenagers in front of them turned around at this.

"You _saw_ that movie?" one asked incredulously. "Wait, which ones of you saw it?"

Harry, Ginny, and Kota raised their hands slightly.

"Did you actually stay until the end?" a guy asked.

"I didn't, my friends wimped out too quickly," Kota said regretfully.

"Er…we did," Ginny said.

"Oh my God, you're mad. You're absolutely bonkers!" another exclaimed.

"I tried seeing that movie," one guy said, in a haunted tone. "My friends and I were out of there in ten minutes flat."

"I couldn't sleep for three days after just seeing the previews!" another admitted.

"Wow, I can't believe you guys stayed until the end. I don't know anyone who's been able to do that," another said in awe.

"The theatre _was_ significantly emptier at the end," Harry said thoughtfully.

"I made it to the part where the girl's home alone and she looks out the window and the freaky demon-ghost girl thing was standing right outside," Kota said. "I couldn't get near dark windows for two weeks."

"Oh God, what are you doing?" the guy who had started watching it asked, sounding a bit panicked. "You don't bring it up! I've spent a month or so trying to forget the movie!"

"So, what was the scariest part?" a girl asked curiously.

Harry and Ginny exchanged a knowing look.

"Okay, there was this part near the end where the main guy was in his bed at night, and he keeps hearing noises outside his window, but he's too scared to go see what it is," Ginny explained. "So he's staring at the window, and you're sure the ghost girl's going to pop up, so you're already tense, and then, he tells himself he's stupid and turns over in bed, and she's lying right next to him!"

Harry and Ginny both shuddered, remembering the freaky scene.

"Of course," Harry continued, "then he's found hanging from his ceiling fan. That's the scene that really sticks with you, especially in the middle of the night when you find yourself lying there, looking out the window. All of a sudden, you don't want to turn over."

Ron snorted.

"These three," said Kota, gesturing to the three Weasley boys, "have never seen a scary movie, and don't think it's possible for a movie to be scary. We're going to start them out on a nice scary movie called, _Night Terrors_."

"Ooh, that's evil," one of the girls said with an amused smirk. "You boys have fun!" The group of teenagers laughed knowingly before leaving with their groceries.

"Why did they say you were evil?" George asked. "Is that a really scary one?" he teased, obviously not believing it would be scary at all.

"Well, I'll leave that for you to judge," Kota said with a grin before calling Mr. Weasley over to show him the wonders of using a credit card.

.

"Okay guys, time for the movie," Kota said with a quick glance at Harry and Hermione. The Weasley parents had left an hour ago, while Remus had made sure to leave well before nightfall, since it was a full moon that night. When they had explained the reason for Remus's early departure to the Stensons, the three had laughed until they realized they were serious, at which point the Muggle family had to once again reform their beliefs.

Now, they were preparing to scare themselves with the scary movie they had decided on.

Harry snuck an evil grin at Ginny who was trying to hold back her excitement.

Kota popped the video into the VCR and Harry flicked off the lights before bringing in the bowl of popcorn. He plopped down on the floor next to Ginny, leaning against the couch. A bunch of hands reached around Harry to grab handfuls of popcorn.

It had taken a great deal of brainstorming to come up with a movie that could have a manageable prank attached to it. As Ginny had made clear, their revenge had to be swift and harsh, something that she could tease them about for years to come. Harry agreed whole-heartedly, remembering the scare they had given him when he had been sleeping on the couch with Ginny a few months earlier. Kota and Hermione had become involved just to see the looks on the three redhead boys' faces and to prove to them that Muggles did, in fact, have enough imagination to make things scary.

The final key player to their plot had been Sirius, who was more than ready to represent the Mauraders as the prank war between he and the twins were starting. He had left with the other wizarding adults, but had immediately Apparated back. Mr. and Mrs. Stenson had set up the guest room for him, since he explained that there should be a trained wizard around for Harry's safety against Death Eaters and such. Of course, everyone had conveniently neglected to relate this fact to Ron, Fred, and George. Sirius was due to sneak downstairs when the movie was over before initiating the prank.

The movie was one that had given Kota nightmares for weeks. It was another supernatural one. When a victim was about to be killed, the power in the house would go out except for the clocks which would turn to the time 11:27, the time when the murderous spirit had been killed long ago. Then the victim would disappear, be taken to the place in the forest where the spirit had been murdered and be killed in the exact same fashion, as discovered later in the movie. It was an incredibly frightening movie, and absolutely perfect for the plan that the four teenagers had formulated.

Harry and Ginny kept sneaking glances at the male redheads during especially frightening parts of the film. Fred and George were trying to disguise their fright, though the occasional jump and their wide eyes betrayed that they really were scared. Ron was engrossed in the film, utterly terrified, clutching Hermione desperately as if she would protect him. The bushy-haired girl was too much of a realist to let the movie affect her too much, allowing her to simply roll her eyes and hold her boyfriend close.

Kota was basking in the delight of already knowing the scary parts, allowing her to giggle each time George jumped at a part. He simply glared at her in return and kept whispering questions to her, begging her to tell him if there was a scary part coming up.

Ginny and Harry had scooted close together for comfort as the movie got increasingly scary. They munched popcorn mechanically, until Ginny accidentally threw the bowl in the air at a pop-out scene, spraying popcorn all over the floor and Harry's lap. Now that she didn't have the popcorn to comfort her, she settled for gripping onto Harry's forearm until his hand began to go numb.

"Er…Gin?" he finally had to whisper, "I can't feel my hand."

Ginny looked down and uncurled her fingers with a sheepish smile. Suddenly, there was a piercing scream on the television and Ginny immediately grabbed Harry's arm again in fright. He chuckled quietly and pried her fingers from his arm, and linked his arm through hers. She hugged his arm tightly through suspenseful parts.

One particular pop-out scene was so terrifying that there was not a single one of them that didn't scream with fright. Ginny buried her face in Harry's shoulder as he grabbed her wrist in fear. Ron scrambled onto Hermione's lap, pulling his legs up off the floor with incredible speed. He wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his face in his shoulder, peeking out at the screen in unbridled terror. Hermione chuckled silently and rubbed her boyfriend's arm reassuringly.

Finally, the movie ended, leaving most of them in a slight shock. It took a second for Harry to remember about the plan, but as he saw Hermione discretely point the remote at the television, he shot a conspiring look at Ginny. He saw the clock move slightly and knew Sirius was in place.

Hermione saw the signal and clicked the power button on the remote, plunging the room into darkness.

"What's going on?" Ron yelled terrified.

"Woah, woah, is it supposed to do that?" Fred asked frantically.

"I don't know what happened, nobody was even near the telly," Kota said in false confusion. They had conveniently failed to mention the existence of remote controls to the Weasley boys.

"It must be a power outage," Hermione said reasonably.

"Oh Merlin…the clock," Ginny said in fake fright, pointing at the digital clock. Sirius, under Harry's invisibility cloak, adjusted the time. The glowing numbers flew by until they landed on 11:27.

Ron began to freak out.

"We're gonna die! We're gonna die!" he shrieked. As Harry's eyes adjusted he saw that he nearly had Hermione in a headlock through his panic.

"Ron, calm down. I'm sure it's nothing," Harry said, purposely sounding unsure of himself.

"Does this ever usually happen with the television and the clock and stuff?" George asked nervously.

"Well, the telly could just be the power, but I don't know about the clock," Kota muttered, biting her lower lip.

"What are we gonna do?" Fred asked shakily. Hermione shook her head.

"Mr. and Mrs. Stenson!" she called. They had previously warned the two parents not to pay attention to the calls, and after being informed of the prank, they had agreed as they rolled their eyes.

"They went out," Kota said quietly.

"They what?" Ron shrieked.

"I forgot to mention it. They went out to the theater and won't be home for a few hours," Kota said, making sure she sounded frightened.

"Maybe it was just the telly that went out. Maybe the lights still work," Harry suggested.

The room was momentarily silent as everyone waited for someone to volunteer to walk across the dark room to the light switch.

"Oh brother. This is ridiculous. We're getting scared over nothing. Ron, get off me. I'll go turn on the lights," Hermione said, trying to push Ron off of her. Ron's eyes went wide.

"No you're not. You'll be killed!" he protested, refusing to budge.

"Don't be ridiculous Ron," she said with a roll of the eyes.

"It's okay. I got it. I'm closest anyway," Harry said, making sure he sounded apprehensive.

"No Harry, don't," Fred said breathlessly.

"It's okay. I'm sure it's nothing," Harry said with an audible deep breath as he started across the room.

As he got three-fourths of the way across the room, he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He gasped dramatically as Sirius threw the invisibility cloak over him with his back facing the others so they wouldn't see him as the cloak was lifted up in the front.

The rest of the kids started screaming in terror as they saw their friend simply disappear. Just as planned, Ginny screamed, "Harry!" before darting out. Harry helped Sirius lift the cloak over her as she let out a piercing scream before Harry cut it off with a hand over her mouth for appropriate sound effects.

The three clasped hands over their mouths to make sure they didn't make a sound as they silently shuffled to the next room. Once they were out of sight from the others, Harry and Ginny slipped out from under the cloak, allowing Sirius to go back into the room to finish the job.

They had to fight giggles as they heard the commotion coming from the next room, complete with dramatic lines from Kota such as, "We're all gonna die!" and "What do you want from us?!"

These lines were cut off as she slipped into position, allowing Sirius to catch her under the cloak.

A moment later, Kota appeared out of thin air next to Ginny, grinning madly.

The only one left was Hermione, who was having a more difficult time getting into position, since Ron refused to let go of her arm.

"Ron let go, I need to destroy the clock. It might the key to everything!" she improvised.

"No, 'Mione!" he cried desperately.

"But maybe if we destroy it, it'll go away!" Hermione insisted.

"I think something just brushed by me!" Fred yelled, backing up into George.

"The clock!" Hermione yelled, trying to yank her arm away from Ron.

In an act of extreme bravery, Ron darted forward and grabbed the clock, ripping the cord from the wall. The glowing numbers flickered off, but when he turned around, Hermione was gone.

"No! 'Mione!" he screamed desperately, racing to where she had just been standing.

Sirius and Hermione appeared from under the cloak, handing it to Harry and Ginny, who slipped under it for the grand finale.

They slipped back into the room as Ron was on his knees screaming out, "What do you want from us?!" as Kota had been shrieking before.

Harry signaled for Ginny to be quiet and spoke in a whispery voice.

"Revenge," he hissed, causing the three boys to jump and huddle together.

"For what? W-we didn't do anything!" George shouted desperately.

"Please, leave us alone, and give us our friends and our sister back," Fred pleaded.

Ginny cupped her hands around her mouth and spoke in a hiss, "Revenge for the picture." She was, of course, referring to the picture the boys had taken of Harry and Ginny asleep on the couch a few months before. Ginny secretly loved the picture, but would never let anyone know that, especially Harry and her brothers.

Harry wrinkled up his nose with silent laughter.

"Picture? What picture?" Ron yelled.

"We don't know what you're talking about!" George insisted.

"And, for jumping out of my closet," Ginny said in the same whispery voice.

All of them froze in confusion.

"We told you we'd get you back," Harry hissed.

Just as the boys were finally beginning to grasp what was going on, Harry and Ginny ripped the cloak off of them screaming, "Rah!" The Weasley boys all jumped back with a scream before realization fully hit them.

The lights flickered on revealing a hysterical Kota and Hermione, with a triumphant Sirius entering behind them.

Ginny and Harry high-fived as the three boys began to look murderous.

"That's what you get for trying to scare us so much about that movie we saw," Ginny informed them.

"That was NOT FUNNY!" Ron yelled, his face turning red now.

Seeing that the prank wasn't going over so well, Sirius slipped away upstairs, hoping the twins wouldn't exact revenge on him.

"Yeah, that was just cruel," said Fred with a bit of a glare.

"Though very imaginative," George said with the appreciation only a prank-player could have.

Fred looked at his twin contemplatively for a second before smirking. "Well, I'll give you that it was a pretty cool act of revenge."

"And you did do very similar things to us," Ginny reminded them.

"I guess we sort of deserved it," George admitted.

"No, you _a lot_ deserved it," Ginny said.

"Okay, well, I don't think I could take that again. Truce?" Fred offered.

George, Harry and Ginny nodded in agreement and the two pairs shook hands. Ron was still mad, his arms crossed as he glared at all those involved in the prank.

"Oh come on Ron, you did the same thing to them, and you have to admit it was kind of funny," Hermione said calmingly.

"No it wasn't. It was mean," Ron said coldly.

Hermione chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him quickly on the cheek.

"Oh Ron, sometimes you remind me of a little kid, you know," she informed him playfully.

Ron glared at her but she just smiled.

"And you know," she said quietly, "I thought that was very brave how you went for the clock, and very sweet that you wanted to protect me."

"You did?" Ron asked in surprise. Hermione nodded and pulled him into a deep kiss.

"Ugh," Harry, Ginny, Fred and George groaned at the couple. Kota smiled and said it was sweet. The snogging pair ignored them and went into the kitchen for some more privacy.

"It's just so wrong," Ginny said with a shudder. "I may be permanently damaged."

"Ah, you're already permanently damaged," Fred said, knocking on her head.

Harry laughed but immediately shut his mouth as Ginny glared at him. Their gazes held each other's for a bit longer than they had to, and the two suddenly looked away sheepishly so the other didn't think they were staring. The Weasley twins exchanged a knowing glance.

"Well for pranking the unprankable pranksters, I think we need to have a victory dance slash sing-along," Kota declared cheerily. She bounced over to the CD player and put on "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang.

The four laughed, danced, and sang horribly to the songs that Kota played; ones she said were necessary for every person to be familiar with, Muggle or not.

They were soon told to go to bed by Mr. Stenson.

Ginny, with a hand covering her eyes, went into the kitchen and told Hermione to come to bed. The two girls joined up with Kota and went upstairs to sleep in Kota's room, while Ron stumbled out of the kitchen with a goofy grin. He was immediately pelted with pillows to snap him out of it.

The boys all laid out sleeping bags downstairs, though it was too hot to actually get in them. For some odd reason, it seemed that all the parents had agreed that it wasn't a good idea to have the boys stay across the hall from the girls and should remain on separate floors.

The boys lay there chatting after everyone left. Despite Hermione's snogging therapy, Ron was still upset about the prank and settled for turning away and ignoring them, namely Harry.

"What do you reckon the girls are talking about upstairs?" George asked.

"Er…how good our revenge was?" Harry tried with a smirk. He turned to Ron. "Ron, come on, it was just a joke. It was no meaner than what you've been doing to Ginny and I."

Ron muttered something about Harry jumping off a cliff.

"Aw come on ickle Ronnikins," Fred cooed, "you have to admit, they got us fair and square."

"Hmph," Ron responded. The other three boys shrugged and continued their speculation on the girls' conversation.

"D'ya reckon they're talking about us?" George asked Harry with a grin.

"I doubt it," Harry said skeptically. "Unless Ginny's entertaining Kota with embarrassing stories of you," he said with an evil grin. George tossed a pillow at his head.

"Well for your sake you better hope she's not, 'cause then I'd kill her and you'd be out of a girlfriend mate," George said with a smirk. Harry felt his face grow hot and he threw the pillow back at George.

"She's not my girlfriend. We're just…."

"….friends," the Weasley boys, including Ron, finished for him, rolling their eyes.

"Then you wouldn't be interested in what she has to say about you?" Fred asked nonchalantly.

"Why? Has she said anything?" he asked cautiously.

"Not to me, but the way I figure it, I could sit here listening to you two trying to guess if they're talking about you or I could go do a little reconnaissance mission," said Fred.

"Also known as eavesdropping," clarified George.

"Precisely, brother," Fred said before standing up. "Well, I'm going to go look for the bathroom," he announced before walking right passed the downstairs toilet and heading up the stairs.

He tiptoed down the hall to Kota's bedroom door and held his breath as he stood outside, listening to the muffled voices inside.

"Why don't you two just tell them that you fancy them? Trust me, they feel the same way, but Harry's unfortunately too stubborn and afraid of your brothers and George is a Weasley boy, meaning it'll probably take him a few years to get around to asking you out," came Hermione's voice. Fred frowned indignantly.

"Nah, George is pretty blunt. I'm surprised he hasn't already confessed his undying love for you," came Ginny's.

"Um maybe it's because he's only seen me in person three times including today and once in passing at a train station?" Kota said in an obvious tone. "I can see why he's taking his time. Harry, however, is a different story. He's totally smitten with you Ginny."

"No he's not," Ginny scoffed. "I mean Harry's probably the sweetest bloke in the whole world. He's nice to _everyone_. Just because he's nice to me as well doesn't mean he fancies me. You guys just like that idea because _I've_ been infatuated with _him_ for so long."

Fred honestly wondered momentarily if his sister had eyes. How could she be so oblivious? Harry was always sneaking glances at her and smiling shyly at her when she caught him.

"Ginny, are you seriously that oblivious?" Hermione asked inside the room.

"Here, here," Fred said under his breath out in the hall.

"Trust us, he fancies you," Kota said, "whether he'll admit it to you or not."

"So," Ginny said loudly, hinting for a change of subject, "let's get back to you fancying my brother. Do you realize what you're getting into?"

"George is great! He's so hilarious, not to mention completely hot. He has such a gorgeous body," Kota said enthusiastically. Fred grinned, thankful to be an identical twin with that comment. He heard Ginny make gagging sounds inside.

"Umm…eww. Please spare me," she said in disgust.

"Yeah, the Weasley boys are just adorable really. Ron's freckles are the cutest things ever. And he really has the most gorgeous eyes," Hermione gushed, in part because she enjoyed bragging about her boyfriend, and in part to gross out Ginny.

"Ugh, please excuse me while I go gouge out my eardrums," Ginny said dramatically. "Besides, I don't know how you can talk about gorgeous and not immediately think of Harry."

"Sure, Harry's really good-looking, but the Weasley boys just have way cuter bums," Hermione said matter-of-factly. Fred's jaw dropped and Ginny shrieked, "OH SICK!! That's just wrong!! EWWW!!"

Hermione and Kota laughed hysterically.

"Ginny, come on, I was just joking…well sort of. No wait, come back!" Hermione laughed.

Suddenly the door flew open as Ginny declared that she was going to go vomit and Fred froze like a deer caught in the headlights.

The girls all stared at him in horror momentarily before Ginny reached up, seized him by the ear and dragged him into the room. She looked both ways down the hall to make sure Fred had been alone before closing the door behind them.

She pushed Fred into Kota's desk chair and the three girls surrounded him, looking, in Fred's opinion, quite dangerous.

"So, uh….those Weasley boy bums, eh?" he joked, laughing nervously as they glared down at him.

"How long were you out there?" Ginny asked, arms crossed.

"Er…a few seconds?" he tried.

"The tips of his ears are red, that means he's lying," Ginny pointed out. "The thing you have to understand is that Weasley males cannot lie to a Weasley female," she explained.

Fred gulped audibly. "Don't hurt me?" he squeaked.

"You are never going to repeat what you've heard in this room, understood?" Hermione said in her authoritative tone that sounded enough like Mrs. Weasley to always make the Weasley boys cower slightly.

Fred nodded fervently. "Yes ma'am."

"I think we need to make an example of our eavesdropper here," Kota said ominously, turning to her desk. When she turned around holding up a small silver tube, the girls all broke out in identical evil grins, while all the blood drained from Fred's face.

.

Minutes later, Fred stumbled down the stairs.

"Bloody hell, what happened to you?" Ron asked as they stared in shock. Fred's face was covered with lipstick drawings, from whiskers to a scribble of red connecting his eyebrows. Across his forehead was written "Slytherin."

"I sense it didn't go too well," George said wisely.

"Did you hear anything good?" Harry asked eagerly.

"No way, I am _not_ testing those girls. They're really scary. All I can say is good luck to you two, and may Merlin have mercy on your souls," he said before going into the downstairs toilet to wash off his face.

"Cool, our future girlfriends have spunk," George said cheerfully. Harry and Ron both gave him looks that clearly stated that they doubted his sanity.

Soon all the boys were lying on top of their sleeping bags, shutting off the last of the lights, checking the clock to make sure it didn't say 11:27, and slipping into slumber, never noticing somebody watching them from the window.

A/N: Hey guys, awesome job reviewing last chapter! Keep it up and I'll keep up the relatively quick updates. (Have you noticed I've been doing once a week for a while now?) HP3 Comes out this Friday!! WHOOOOOOO!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!! Oops, I think I went a bit overboard on review responses. Oh well!!

**Wiccan PussyKat: **lol, me brilliant? Why thank you. I know, can you believe Snapey? He was mean! He let his temper get out of control. Shame shame, Sevvie. Of course it's easier said than done, but Eloise finally realized she couldn't leave everything up to fate. She had to help things along. Nothing suspicious about Roger. Harry was spot on, the boy was just intrigued to find someone with an actual personality. I'm glad you like the Flawed Perfection convo. Interestingly enough, I came up with the title for the story first, and then wrote the scene to fit it, and then turned it into a bit of a theme. I love how things work like that sometimes. I always see strange things in clouds myself. It's one of those activities that really shows how relaxed or bored you are. Lol. The boys have convinced Hermione to relax a bit, and she's loosened up a bit throughout the last year. Plus, I think she's one of the few people to _truly_ have a grasp of how lucky they are to have Harry with them and it's changed her priorities a bit. Lol, Bryce is my favorite name for a guy!! But don't worry, those aren't Harry's name ideas, just Eloise's. lol and yes, you have lost that battle. Sorry! As you can see, their revenge did not include snogging…well, I guess it ended up with snogging between Ron and Hermione, but that's beside the point. I love piling the angst on Harry, as you can see. Snape does feel guilty about what he said, but he just could never admit it. Haven't you ever done something bad or mean and you don't want to admit it so you just hope that by acting like it never happened, somehow it'll make it go away? I know I've done that several times. Even if you're pissed at Snape, can you see where he might be coming from? His pride is standing in his way and he's never had to apologize before.

**EternallyMine: **lol, that would be so awesome to stand at a podium and read HP to the masses. I know, don't you completely want Eloise's dream man? I know I do! Flawed perfection works in men too! I'm so glad you noticed the differences in lengths between the letters. I did that on purpose, of course. I saw this episode of "Friends" once where the girls are talking about a kiss, and they turn it into this huge, dramatic, detailed thing, and then it panned over to the guys and they were just like: "We kissed." "Tongue?" "Yeah" "Cool". It cracked me up because it was so spot on, so I was inspired! Lol. I know, I surf and I know how creepy it is to step on a fish. Very odd.

**Didge: **I really loved your email and thanks for popping in a review as well! Instead of having to check everyday, you can always join my update group if you'd like. I have some people I email when I post new chapters, though I almost forget every time, so it's a bit less reliable than the author alert system. Yeah, I can't believe I made that mistake! Well, this is why my beta needs to get his act together. I think he's only done about 4 of my chapters! I'm glad you pointed it out, though.

**X-Goddess of Imaginary Light-X: **lol, thank you! I'm so glad you like my fics so much! I'm surprised you've read this one twice since it's not even done! Thank you so much for reviewing, I'm so glad you decided to. Your review was very awesome and I hope you continue to review sometime in the future! I hope you end up liking this one as much as my previous one, but I guess you have a while before the plot unfolds completely. Your review honestly did make my day, so thank you so much for it!

**Myr Halcyon: **Thanks for the advice! I actually did take it and did just that. It went over fairly well, I'd say. Well, just remember that even if you're really good at looking at things pertaining to love, it's a lot harder to figure it all out when you're involved. That's Eloise's main problem. Lol, good luck with your detective work, though I doubt you'll be able to figure it out, though I did drop a major hint at some point in the last few chapters that thankfully, nobody seemed to get, yet at the end, it'll be brought into play. I think this story will be one of those if you read it a second time through after finding out the ending, there will be a lot of slapping the hand to the forehead. At least that's what I'm hoping for. That's one reason I like this story better than Recnac, but I guess I'll let you all be the judge of that as well. Well, Ron is sixteen (his b-day's in March I think) and Harry's almost sixteen, and then Hermione will turn in September. But you're right they're so young and have been through so much.

**Liz**: Harry bashing is bad? This does not register in my brain. Lol. If you don't like Harry angst/Harry bashing, you may want to get out while you still can! I know "anyways" is technically incorrect, but I figure in speech it'll be okay. I just can't bring myself to change it since it's so odd for me to say "anyway" without the s, even if that's grammatically correct. Oh well. That's interesting about the editing because I've always wondered about that. I don't like how they changed "Mum" to "Mom", but I don't think they've done that in the last few so I guess I can deal. I know! You know why they changed the title? Because they thought Americans wouldn't think Philosopher's Stone was an intriguing enough title. Do all Brits really think Americans are that shallow and stupid? Then again, maybe we are, I don't know. Lol. I would have preferred the original title, that's all I know. I know! I think Dan Radcliffe is a horrible actor, I just pray he's gotten better for the third movie. He doesn't only need acting classes, he needs acting therapy! Trust me, there is a plot. Don't be too concerned that you're not sure of it yet. This is structured differently than Recnac, and for good reason.

**ImaginaryFriendless: **I'm so glad you liked the last chapter! I know, I'm sadistic too. Oh right, that's obvious. Ahh, I love you! I'm so glad you can understand where Snape is coming from, even if what he did was bad! I'm glad you like the Harry/Snape/Draco interaction scenes, because I like them too! In fact, they've become a major part of the fic. I think I've let other characters slide out of the way to let them take one of the spotlights, whether that's good or bad is up to you. Sirius is still in the process of developing, but there will be more of him coming up. Ooh, that would have been a good scene, if Harry passed out in the water and Ron and Hermione had to pull him out and Hermione having to give him CPR or something. I could totally picture it in my mind. Oh well, too late. Lol. Long reviews are my favorites as well, so keep 'em up! Lol, yes it is a shame more people don't read it! I tried making the Flawed Perfection scene work, but my English teacher suggested I read something else since he still thought it sounded out of context. I really wanted to read that one though. Oh well.

**Lourdes: **I'm glad you like Sev, and as for Draco, he's been changing for a long while, and we've never seen him with an actual friend before. He's very protective of Harry because it's his first true friend…ever, and he's afraid of losing that. He hasn't changed all that much in comparison to others. He's trying to make some changes in how he treats people in order to keep his friendship with Harry, but he's definitely not a fan of Ron or Muggles. He's warming up to mixed-bloods a bit after finding out Harry was one, but he still has pureblood pride, he just doesn't show it off, because what would be the point? I like the idea for my scholarship thing, but they wanted to hear a sample of my writing and as much as I'd have liked it to be from one of my two fanfiction stories, it just wouldn't have worked, but thanks for the suggestion!

**ParanoiaIn2005: **umm…yes? Lol. I feed off tears. I'll try to induce a smorgasbord later. I'd never be able to do that either, but Eloise is made of stronger stuff than people realize. She'd have to be to take all the teasing she's gotten for her looks. I'm glad you like the scene with the trio, because I loved writing that scene. It's so fluffy and fun. True enough, but they're closer friends than the average. And actually, my friends tickle me on occasion, because they're sadistic beasts (I happen to be extraordinarily ticklish to the point of insanity). I've been on both sides of those pranks. I always think it's extremely funny, unless I'm the victim and then I can get a bit pissy. With Harry and Ginny's prank on the boys in this chapter, all the reactions are ones that I have. I've been where Ron is, but I've also been the prankster, so there you go. I'm so happy you can sympathize with Sev you good reader you! Draco's quite protective of his friend, isn't he? That's what happens when you've only had one true one in your whole life, I guess. Lol, I love how you're matching songs to my fics, even if I don't always know what song you're talking about. I definitely have certain songs that I play when I need to get into the mood to write sad scenes, and ones that I play to get into the mood for goofy scenes. It's crazy because once or twice, I've had someone mention a song in association to a scene, and it's the one I was listening to when I wrote it! I love your long reviews, so keep 'em up!

**Cestrel **(why don't you think that's how she'd view Roger? Just curious.), **noprobro, corrinetkn24 **(thanks!), **velith **(I'm glad you understand Snape's actions! That's awesome. You get the 3rd movie on Monday?? I'm so jealous. We get it Friday at midnight. I can't wait!), **DADAGinny **(I've never heard of the PhoenixSong. What is it?), **Dinah, Mayhem El-Diablo **(silly potions master indeed!), **Kevin-McKay **(I love you! It takes an excellent reader to be feeling sympathetic toward Sev at the end of that scene. I'm glad you can see both sides!), **Catiechan, Fiery Ferret **(I'm glad you liked the Snape being mean to Harry scene.), **Madame Moony **(Yeah, I think so too! I love Harry! I just enjoy putting him through the ringer), **therese **(well, we'll have to see if you can be brought to forgive Sev. I guess it'll depend on how he acts from now on, huh? We'll see!), **HappiGoLucki616 **(good noticing skills! Lol.), **fantagal **(oops!), **Musicstarlover **(he can be mean, yes, but he's sort of a product of his making. Yeah, poor Harry, and you'll feel even worse for him throughout the story since I'm just so mean to him, sort of like Sev.), **Gryphonmistress **(yay! Thanks! Lol, well, I hope I can start the waterworks up again as this story goes on, because trust me, it is riddled with angst. Thanks for recommending my fic to people!! That's so awesome!), **ikke-isso-cute, alternativelyspliced **(yeah, Sev really does need to get his act together, but then again, so do a lot of people in the fic coughSiriuscough), **Indiamagic, lilycat, comet moon, Lindiel Eryn **(I really doubt I referred to Eloise as a second year, but if I did, that was definitely a mistake. I've been working with the assumption that she's in the same year as Harry. I'm glad you liked Draco yelling at Sev, that was fun to write!), **magnum-man-05 **(lol! Thanks for the awesome review, and I'll definitely keep your email in mind. I might take you up on your offer with a few things in the future. My beta's slacking so I need someone to give me honest opinions for a few things. If you're up to the challenge of being brutally honest, I may have some questions for you.), **charmingcheese, Helen, kneh13, MissLilyStar **(happy now-belated birthday!), **Ashes7, sadisticfreak529, lyss33, A-Brighter-Dawn, shadowsfriend **(thanks! I'm so glad you like it! I hope you continue to do so!), **Siri Kat **(oh, lol. Right, I thought you meant he hit his head on something and I couldn't figure out what that was about. Lol, that would have been great. "Ginny, I can't see anything!" "Harry? You scared? Let me comfort you." Snog snog), **stahchiled, shadowarwen **(lol, I'm always happy to bring you close to tears. No, Sirius doesn't know because Harry would never tell him.) **Angel74 **(that's why I like your story too! I love the little things like where Draco and Harry were talking about Draco's dream, and then you have these dramatic scenes, like my fave one where Remy keeps telling Harry it's not his fault until he breaks down. I love that contrast. Harry definitely looks up to Sev in this fic, I'm glad you can see that, even if it's very subtle. Update soon yourself!), **Torifire126 **(lol, wow that's so great! I just can't believe people are talking about my fic. It's so…wow! Glad you liked the chappy!), **Wynjara, Nation El-Diablo, EriEka127, Harryandginnyforever, Kelley **(lol, okay, I'll try to warn you, but some of the scenes with them are necessary to read. I think you're about to enter a pretty H/G fluffiness-free zone for quite a few chapters up ahead, even if there was a smidgen in this chapter.), **HG/HrRFan4ever **(Thanks! I'm so glad you liked it! Cool!! You quoted me! That's beyond awesome. Foreshadowing? Good call. That's all I can say. Thank you so much for the wonderful compliments!!), **TheSerpentAndTheLion **(I'm glad you can see why I'm putting off the talk with Sirius. I'll go into this deeper later, and it does become a pretty big issue. The title is sort of interesting because I came up with it, and then wrote the scene to fit it, and it sort of turned into a reoccurring theme from there, instead of the opposite way.), **ChildOfDarkness **(if you like that kind of thing, I think you're going to have a fun time with this fic.), **yellowpages, ChristinaLupin01442 **(don't worry, Siri. No matter what the other two say, you're hot and that's important too. Lol.), **Gina87, cintishortstop, Crystal113, Phoenixmarauder, lost angel92, Savoy Truffle **(we'll see, dahling, we'll see…)**, Bosson12787, Kathryn3 **(I'm glad you're seeing how the title is also a theme in the story.), **Rhiain, Dana **(ahh…I see. Yes, Harry does need one of those, huh? Yeah, everyone's a bit stupid about Harry, aren't they? They all think he can deal with it all on his own.), **Rhyllen, PhoenixPadfoot89, ThreeToedSloth **(I'm glad you like the balancing between good and bad. I figure that's sort of how life can be sometimes, you know? A mixture of both.), **Anilia Hawkeye **(you won't find out for a while what's wrong with Harry, but it will eventually be figured out. I've already put in a few key clues, but I did it subtley and no one has seemed to pick them up, which is great for me!), **Hathi, athenakitty **(Harry will have health problems all his life after the cancer thing because he just has a weak immune system. Of course, with this new problem, it's hard to tell since no one knows what's wrong. What do you mean, "Does Harry have Snape's number?" I don't think I understand the question.), **Earthmom **(really? That's so great!! I mean…so sad. Lol. I love making my readers get all teary since I think it shows you're into the story, which also makes you a wonderful reader, so thank you!), **AgnesSophia, Can You See **(lol, yeah, Seve screwed up a bit. I'm glad you like my fics and I hope I can make you cry again, as sadistic as that sounds.), **Zaptor **(lol, I've seen the sexy Snape one, so hilarious!! I'm going to go try the star thing now! Thanks for the head's up!)


	11. Shattered Illusions of Safety

**Author's Note: **Holy toe socks, look at the length of this chapter!! I couldn't find a good place to cut it, what can I say? Anyways, I saw HP3 at midnight Thursday night. The movie was great, much better than the other two, though they did cut out a lot and move some things around. I really really loved it though. The Dementors are the awesomest thing ever! So, I went with my group of forty. While waiting in line, the theater people came around asking HP trivia questions, and I answered one and got a Lego HP Night Bus. Very very cool. And then they actually seated us in the IMAX about an hour ahead of time and to pass the time, we had a big costume contest, based on applause from the audience. My friend was dressed as Draco (he looked so much like him with his hair gelled back I was flabbergasted.). Since I was dressed as Pansy Parkinson, we entered the contest together. It ended up between us and my other friend who was dressed as Harry, but since "Draco" and I hammed it up so much (putting on British accents, scowls, and really cool, stuck-up poses with our home-made wands), we won! We got a standing ovation, well by some at least. They gave us HP3 posters!! It was so fun!! Some of the group went to Starbucks and ordered their drinks under the names of the HP characters they dressed up as, so they all had them written on their cups when they got back. And then there were a bunch of little girls, and some older ones, exchanging HP stickers for hugs and autographs from two of my guy friends (the Harry and Draco). It was an absolutely fantastic night, though my voice is still a bit harsh from all the screaming/cheering before and after. Whew, anyways, I'm sure you all want to get onto the story, so here you go!!!

An hour later, the back door silently slid open. Vernon Dursley was strangely calm as he walked into the room where the four boys were sleeping soundly.

He had been so excited when his wife had told him that she had run into Harry at the store and that not only was the boy staying at the Stensons' again, but that they were all under the impression that Vernon was still in jail. The truth was that with the way the law system worked, he could not be held merely for the train-station incident and the Stenson's testimony. He had been let out within a day with a small fine and the ban for Harry to visit the Stensons being lifted.

He was somewhat surprised the Stensons didn't know he was out, but they obviously didn't if neither their daughter nor Harry knew about it. It wasn't as if he had been roaming Privet Drive a lot; he was spending most of his time searching for a job, something he was still certain that Harry had taken from him in the first place. He knew his nephew had been using his abnormality to make their lives miserable, and now he would pay.

Revenge on Harry had grown into a bit of an obsession for Vernon. How many times had he told himself that if he could have just one more chance to get his hands on the boy, he would make him regret all the things he'd done to ruin Vernon's life? Now was his chance and he would make sure to teach that boy a lesson he would never forget.

He first crept toward the closest redhead, George, who was sprawled lazily on his back. Vernon ripped off a piece of duct tape and knelt down beside the boy. He slammed the tape down over George's mouth, causing the boy's eyes to fly open. George tried to scream but his cries were too muffled to wake anyone. They were all heavy sleepers.

Vernon roughly rolled George onto his stomach and wrestled his arms behind his back where he secured them with a zip-tie. George could smell alcohol strongly on the man. Vernon secured another one around his ankles.

"I'll be taking this," he whispered evilly, snatching up George's wand, which he had laid next to his pillow.

George could do nothing but wriggle around and watch wide-eyed as the huge man made his way to Fred, who was lying on his stomach, fast asleep.

Vernon positioned himself over George's sleeping twin. He tore off another piece of the thick tape and slapped it over Fred's mouth as he slammed his knee into the boy's back, pinning him to the ground.

The first thing Fred saw when his eyes shot open was his twin. Their eyes both shown with fear and confusion as Vernon zip-tied Fred's hands and ankles and put the second wand in his back pocket.

The man was moving to Ron when Harry stirred. The twins began making as much noise as they could with their mouths taped shut to get his attention.

The raven-haired boy sleepily began to sit up to figure out what the strange muffled sounds he was hearing were, squinting through the darkness, but suddenly a large, beefy hand covered his mouth and slammed his head back into the floor.

Though he didn't have his glasses on, he still recognized his uncle's face looming over him. He desperately tried screaming and thrashing around, but his cries were muffled and he was no match for his massive uncle.

Vernon pulled a knife from his back pocket and struck Harry's forehead with the handle with enough force to cause a large gash and nearly cause him to black out.

Uncle Vernon fished around in his pockets and, with a malicious grin, pulled out a piece of fishing wire and flipped Harry onto his back where he tied the boy's wrists together.

Harry's vision was swimming and his head pounded angrily. As Vernon pulled the wire tight to make a knot, it dug into Harry's skin, cutting into his wrists. He hissed in pain, still trying to fight off unconsciousness from the blow to his head.

"Shut it boy or I'll just kill you now," his uncle whispered.

Harry's cheek was pressed firmly to the ground so that all he could really see was his best friend. Ron stirred and Harry silently willed him to wake up. The redhead's eyes fluttered open and widened as they met Harry's terrified ones. Ron momentarily wondered if this was another joke, but in seeing Harry's uncle, he knew it was something none of them would ever joke about.

Ron was about to yell but stopped as the knife was brought to Harry's throat and Vernon's eyes met his. Apparently, the man had noticed Ron's consciousness as well. Harry shut his eyes in fright and inhaled sharply as the blade grazed the sensitive skin.

"You make one sound, boy, I'll slit his throat and he'll be dead instantly. You got that?" Vernon growled quietly.

Ron reluctantly nodded silently, his eyes begging Harry for forgiveness.

Uncle Vernon placed his hand firmly over Harry's mouth and pulled his nephew to his feet, despite Harry's desperate struggling to escape.

"Remember, you: one noise," he warned Ron as he wrestled Harry toward the door.

Harry didn't want to know what his uncle would do to him if he got him out of the Stensons' house. As they passed a small lamp table, Harry kicked it with all his might, causing the table to crash to the ground along with the lamp on top of it.

"You little brat!" Vernon growled as he dragged Harry toward the door. Harry did all he could to kick his uncle's shins. Vernon, in a bout of fury, dragged the knife across Harry's upper arm, causing Harry to cry out against his uncle's hand as blood seeped down his arm.

He put the knife to Harry's neck and shot a warning look at Ron who was shaking with terror. The redhead didn't know what to do and was so worried that whatever action he took would result in Harry's death.

"Boys, what is going on down here?" Mr. Stenson called as he began to come down the steps, followed by Sirius. The two froze as their eyes landed on Harry, struggling against his uncle.

Harry shot Sirius a look of sheer desperation before he was thrown sideways into the kitchen. He crashed to the kitchen floor as Uncle Vernon slammed the door behind him. In a swift movement, the man upturned the heavy table against it. He then tipped over the huge bureau filled with the Stenson's best china. It crashed to the ground in front of the table, creating a greater blockade.

Harry could hear yelling and huge bangs on the other side of the door, but even Sirius's spells couldn't get the door to open with all the furniture blocking it.

Vernon turned to Harry, who desperately tried to scoot away, trying to ignore the shooting pains in his head. His uncle was in an incredible rage.

"Surprised to see me, boy?" he laughed maniacally. He picked up a huge glass plate and hurled it to the ground next to Harry.

"Help!" Harry screamed desperately.

"Harry!" came the muffled cries from the other side of the door, followed by a huge bang that didn't make any difference in the huge blockage.

"Help me please!" Harry screamed in terror as he tried to back away from his uncle as the large man quickly advanced on him. He was stopped by a heavy kick to the side that momentarily stopped his ability to breathe.

"You ruined my life!" Vernon bellowed with pure hatred, giving Harry a swift kick in the stomach. "You destroyed everything!" He picked Harry up by his shirt collar and threw him into an overturned chair with such force that it snapped off one of the wooden legs. "You're pathetic. You're worthless. You only ruin lives." He picked up a broken piece of china and hurled it at Harry, hitting him in the side of the neck. Harry cried out in pain and once again tried to scoot away, knowing it was useless. "We tried to care about you, but how could anybody love a piece of trash like you? Look at you. You make me want to vomit you disgust me so much. We should have thrown you into a river when you were dropped on the doorstep, but we tolerated you when no one else wanted anything to do with you. And this is how you repay us? By constantly ruining our lives? No wonder nobody wants you! No wonder none of your parents' freaky friends ever came to get you or even _visit_ you. You're just a FREAK!"

Harry backed up along the ground as best he could.

"They love me. My godfather, he cares about me!" he protested. Even if it only incensed his uncle further, he wanted to make sure he got this across. "He loves me. He said so himself and he's going to kick your fat arse if you touch me one more time," he said in a panic as his uncle quickly approached, while Harry couldn't move very well with his hands tied behind his back and the few injuries he had received thus far.

Vernon reached him and kicked him very hard in the stomach, nearly causing Harry to vomit.

"Don't be a fucking idiot, boy! These people who say they care about you, like your precious _godfather_, they don't even know you. They haven't been around you long enough to know you like I do. And when they find out how you _really_ are, and find out what a _burden_ you are, they're going to hate you just as much as I do!" he growled furiously, picking up the broken chair leg as he advanced on his nephew.

Harry pulled himself to his feet with much difficulty and ran toward the drawer filled with knifes hoping to get something to defend himself with, even if his hands were tied behind his back. Halfway there, however, he was struck between the shoulder blades with a china dish that exploded on impact and knocked him to the ground.

There was nothing he could do as he felt several more pieces of china crash over his back and the backs of his legs. His body felt as if it were engulfed in flames. He tried to call for help once again, but the words died as his uncle's foot connected with his chest and stomach.

When he remained momentarily untouched, he sneaked a peek up at his uncle. The man was holding the chair leg up over his head with a look of unadulterated fury. Harry could not have possibly braced himself for the pain that came from the blow with the piece of wood. His back felt as if it had been ripped open, and the worst part was knowing that there would be more.

.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Mr. Stenson and Sirius were furiously trying to get into the kitchen. The females had heard the commotion and had come down the stairs, shocked to see the twins tied up, Ron shaking violently as he peeled the tape off the twins mouths. Mrs. Stenson quickly ran to her husband as the girls ran to the three Weasley boys.

"Hermione, do you have your wand?" Fred shouted desperately as Ron tugged helplessly at the zip-ties, not knowing how to get them off.

"No," she said in a frightened tone, "I don't carry it around during summer since we're not allowed to use them, but what's going on? Where's Harry?"

Kota quickly retrieved scissors from of her father's office. She raced back in and knelt in between the twins, cutting off the zip-ties as quickly as she could with her trembling hands.

Hermione held Ron as he shakily tried to speak.

"I didn't know what to do! He said he'd kill him if I yelled for help! I didn't…I didn't know…and what if he dies? This can't be happening! It can't…"

"Who said he'd kill who?" Hermione asked desperately.

"Harry's uncle. He's got Harry," George said shakily, face pale with fright. Kota clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Oh my God, we need to get through that door! His uncle's a bloody maniac! He'll kill Harry!" she said frantically.

"Ron, do you have your wand?" Fred asked his little brother. Ron closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Um. Um. We need to get Mum and Dad," George said wildly. "But the wards, we, we can't Apparate home anymore with all the wards."

"Um…Harry keeps that powder for going through the fireplace up in the guestroom," Kota said anxiously.

Ginny immediately jumped to her feet and raced up the stairs to find it.

"Okay, okay, we need to light a fire, but I don't know how without a wand," Fred said, sounding panicky.

Kota quickly climbed to her feet and ordered Hermione to grab the lighter from the desk drawer as Ginny raced back down the stairs with a small, green pouch.

They were just about to start a fire when flames burst up out of nowhere in the fireplace and the opening grew to allow people to step out.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley hurried through the fire into the living room, looking disheveled. Their clothes looked as if they had been thrown on hastily and their hair was tussled as if they had just woken up.

"Mum? Dad?" Fred asked in shock.

"Where's Harry? What's happening?" Mrs. Weasley asked frantically.

"His uncle's got him in the kitchen! We're not sure what's happening but he looked like he was going to kill him!" George quickly explained.

Mr. Weasley ran to where the Stensons were and told them to step aside, standing next to Sirius. The two simultaneously shot spells at the door but the furniture blocking it on the other side prevented it from opening.

"How did you know to come?"

"The family clock. Are you alright?" Mrs. Weasley quickly asked her boys.

"Yeah, Mum, we're fine. Harry needs help," George said quickly.

Mrs. Weasley whipped out her wand and going to help her husband. On her way, she knocked Harry's pillow to the side, revealing his wand. Ron crawled forward and grabbed it, furious with himself for forgetting that Harry always slept with his wand under his pillow when he didn't have a nightstand to set it on.

They could all hear a big crash coming from the kitchen, followed by an anguished scream.

Sirius slammed his body against the door.

"DURSLEY! YOU TOUCH A HAIR ON HIS HEAD AND I WILL RIP OUT YOUR BLOODY THROAT!" Sirius bellowed to the closed door. "HARRY, HOLD ON!"

He stepped back and pointed his wand at the door.

"On three," he instructed to the two Weasley parents.

The three spells made the door jump with a loud bang, but the furniture against the other side still kept it closed.

"Hold on Harry," he muttered before getting ready to cast another spell. "Again!"

.

Harry distantly heard the muffled cries and banging as the people on the other side of the door tried getting in. China continued to crash to the ground with each blow against the door. Harry had stopped registering what the sounds meant. At that moment he only knew pain and fear as the chair leg crashed over his back repeatedly.

At some point he was violently flipped onto his back and the piece of wood slammed into his stomach. He jerked so hard that the wire that bound his wrists became embedded in one, cutting into the vein. He felt warm liquid dripping freely from his wrist, but there was nothing he could do. He quickly brought his knees to his chest and rolled onto his side to protect his stomach from further injury. He just wanted to pass out or die or anything to stop the pain. He prayed it would end; he didn't care how.

And suddenly, it did. He didn't want to look up though, not that he had the strength to anyways. He was scared that if he did, his uncle would be standing there with the knife like the night he stabbed him.

Hands grabbed his shoulder and carefully pulled him over onto his back, gently coaxing him out of his protective ball. Harry lied flat on his back looking up into the blurry faces of Ron and Hermione. Harry barely registered Mrs. Weasley's voice in the background yelling at the other kids not to enter the kitchen and berating Ron and Hermione for slipping past her. His two best friends paid her no attention.

Hearing a commotion to his right, he looked over and saw Sirius, Mr. Stenson and Mr. Weasley furiously kicking Vernon Dursley who was now in a ball on the floor as Harry had just been. Harry couldn't watch and turned his head away with great difficulty, looking back up at his friends.

"Harry? Oh God, Harry?" Hermione cried, tears streaming down her face. He wanted to tell her not to cry but didn't have the strength. "Oh, Ron, there's so much blood. He must have a really deep wound somewhere! It looks like it's under him!"

Ron whipped out Harry' wand and held it over his friend.

"Seardetrimenta!" he yelled, trying to sort through all the pain he sensed for the worst injuries. "His wrist," he announced when the spell was done. "I think he might have a concussion as well." He sounded very frightened. "Alright, I'm going to sit him up and you check out his wrist," he said to Hermione.

Ron leaned forward and slid his arms under Harry's arms and around his back. He pulled his friend carefully to his chest and sat up, pulling the raven-haired boy with him. Harry's head lolled forward, resting on Ron's shoulder.

"Oh God, there's so much blood. He—he tied wire around Harry's wrists! It's cut into his vein and he's losing blood fast," Hermione said, sounding uncharacteristically panicked.

Mrs. Weasley was soon at their side petting Harry's hair and kissing his head as tears streamed down her face. Harry looked over at her tiredly, his head still resting on Ron's shoulder. Hermione showed her Harry's wrist and Mrs. Weasley carefully severed the wire with a spell.

"This is going to hurt for a second love, okay?" she said to Harry sadly, brushing a few strands of blood-soaked hair away from his face. Harry barely nodded.

Mrs. Weasley grasped the wire firmly and, in one swift movement, pulled it out of Harry's wrist.

As the pain shot through Harry's body, he felt his stomach lurch dangerously. He weakly pushed against Ron who loosened his grip on his friend and gave him a questioning glance. Harry turned away as much as he could within Ron's hold before he vomited violently with a mixture of the day's food and blood.

Unfortunately, Ron hadn't let go of Harry completely, so the vomit went half on the floor, half on Ron's lap. But instead of scooting away, Ron didn't seem to care that Harry was being sick all over him. He stayed right where he was to continue to help hold Harry upright.

When he had finished, Mrs. Weasley lifted his chin up with her finger and wiped the vomit off his face with a dishtowel she had fetched. She tried to wipe away some of the blood that covered the left side of his face, but it was just replaced with new blood dripping from the wound.

Harry looked at Ron's lap in mortification.

"'m sorry," he murmured, looking up at him with an expression that begged for forgiveness.

"Don't worry about it, Har," Ron said with a forced smile to reassure him. Harry looked like a complete wreck. His pajamas were soaked in blood along with his hair and the whole left side of his face. There was a large swollen gash on the left side of his forehead where Vernon had hit him with the knife handle earlier. There was another large cut on the side of his neck and several smaller ones on his arms. The rest of him was covered in blood-soaked pajamas, and Ron knew that was where the real damage was.

While he had been throwing up, Harry had placed his right hand on Ron's shoulder to brace himself and Ron was horrified how quickly his whole shoulder had turned deep-red with the blood from Harry's wound.

"Mum, we need to wrap Harry's wrist in something. He's losing too much blood," he said, nearly in tears.

Hermione wordlessly pulled her bathrobe's belt from around her waist and began wrapping Harry's wrist tightly in it. Mrs. Weasley got up to get some ice for the head wound.

Suddenly, there was a loud commotion to the right. Mr. Weasley had gone over to tell Mrs. Stenson not to call the police but that the magical law enforcement would handle it much more efficiently, grabbing the attention of Mr. Stenson as well. Somehow, Vernon had managed to get up. He wrestled Sirius's wand away from him and punched him in the gut. Mr. Stenson dived at him, but Vernon elbowed him in the face.

The fat man lunged for his nephew, seizing him by the front of the shirt. Harry slammed his eyes shut and let out a whimper of fright. Uncle Vernon tried pulling the boy up to use as a hostage in order to get out, but encountered the problem of Harry's friends.

Ron and Hermione had latched onto the raven-haired boy and refused to let go. They pounded at Vernon's wrist with all they're might and when that proved not to be affective, Hermione grabbed a wand from Vernon's pocket, presumably one of the twins', and touched the tip to Vernon's arm, shouting the first spell that came to her mind.

"Incendio!" she yelled and the man's arm caught fire. He dropped Harry, screaming as he tried to put out the flames.

Harry was now shaking uncontrollably. Ron hugged his best friend tight to his chest and Hermione wrapped her arms around him protectively from behind, whispering in his ear that it would be okay. Mrs. Weasley was immediately at their side and pulled the whole lot of them into a giant hug as Sirius and Mr. Weasley put Harry's uncle into a full body bind, putting out the fire on his arm by stomping on it viciously.

By this point, Harry's head was swimming dangerously and his body began to go limp. Ron looked at him frantically.

"Harry, don't go to sleep, okay? You have a concussion and you've lost a lot of blood. You can't go to sleep," he instructed. Harry was shivering violently. The pain was overwhelming and he thought Ron's instructions were quite cruel.

Ron looked up at Hermione.

"Help me lie him down again." He and Hermione worked together to gently lay Harry back down on the floor.

"Sirius," Mrs. Weasley called sternly, instantly grabbing the man's attention, "stop wasting your time on that man. Harry needs you."

A flash of guilt crossed Sirius's face as he immediately came over, not looking back. He knelt by Harry, really taking in his appearance for the first time. Harry didn't even acknowledge his presence, as he was too busy trying to fight off the fatigue and nausea.

"I need Floo powder," he said suddenly. He turned to the door where Mrs. Stenson was making sure the other children stayed out of the kitchen. "Tell somebody to find some Floo powder!" he ordered. Mrs. Stenson nodded and immediately relayed the instructions to the others who informed her that they had already found some.

"Are you going to take him to St. Mungo's?" Hermione asked anxiously as Sirius slid one arm under Harry's abused back and the other under his knees.

"No," he said, carefully lifting Harry into his arms.

"So where are you taking him? Hogwarts?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"No," he said as he carried Harry from the room. "I'll explain later," he called, not wanting to waste any more time.

"Don't let him fall asleep!" Ron warned him. Sirius nodded. George, Fred, Kota and Ginny looked in horror at Harry's condition. Mrs. Stenson ushered George, who was holding the pouch of Floo powder, forward. She warned the others to stay back and give Sirius room.

"Throw some into the fire," Sirius ordered. Mrs. Weasley lit a fire with her wand and George followed the instructions. The fireplace immediately grew, allowing Sirius to step inside, cradling his bloody godson to his chest.

"Snape Manor," he called, and in a flash of green flames, the pair was gone.

.

Sirius stepped out of the fireplace into the huge living room, Harry cradled to his chest. He ran into the hall yelling desperately.

"Snape! Snape! Please, you've gotta help me! Snape get down here!!" he screamed. He looked down at the bloody boy in his arms. "Hold on Harry," he murmured quietly. "Help is coming." He looked back up and yelled for Snape once again.

Suddenly the lights in the hall turned on as a peeved Snape came into view.

"What the bloody hell do you want, Black? Do you know what time it is?" he asked angrily before his eyes landed on Harry and widened with worry. He ran down to them. "What the hell happened?" he asked, taking in Harry's injuries.

"His uncle got to him while he was staying at Harry's Muggle friends' house," Sirius explained desperately. "Can you help him? Hr. Callahan won't be in and nobody else at St. Mungo's is familiar with his immune system and…you've got to help him."

"What's going on?" came a tired voice from the top of the stairs where Draco had just arrived. "Sirius? Is something wro…" Snape shifted and Draco got a look at the barely-conscious boy in Sirius's arms. "Oh gods what happened? Is Harry okay?" he asked frantically as he began running down the stairs.

"Everyone follow me. We're going to my lab," Snape announced and began to swiftly guide the way.

"What's going on? What happened to him?" Draco asked fearfully.

Sirius quickly told them the events of the night, holding Harry a little tighter to him.

Draco looked utterly shocked while Snape looked no less than furious.

They got to the office part of the lab and Snape instructed Sirius to lay Harry down on the couch. Sirius gently followed the directions and reluctantly stepped back to let Snape check the Gryffindor over. He tried casting a few healing spells but obviously wasn't having much luck.

"What's the matter?" Sirius asked in a frightened tone.

"Most healing spells simply increase immune system power and direct it to do certain things, yet Harry's immune system isn't responding normally to them. I should have foreseen this. With so many injuries, his already weak immune system has basically gone into shock and isn't doing what it's supposed to," Snape explained bitterly.

"So what's going to happen to him?" Sirius asked in a panic. "Are you going to be able to heal him?"

"Yes. Potions will work better. I know some that will heal without the help of his immune system. Black, you come with me. I'm going to need your help to brew a potion. Draco, you get a wet washcloth and try to clean up that head wound a bit. Try to keep the bleeding from his wrists from getting out of control. Keep him awake. If he starts going unconscious, call for me immediately," Snape ordered, leading a distraught Sirius into the next room to start a potion.

Draco grabbed a clean rag from the cupboard and stuck it under the stream of water from the lab sink. He quickly returned to Harry's side and knelt by him. The raven-haired boy winced as Draco tried to clean up the blood and the wound.

"Thanks," he murmured weakly.

Draco looked down at him worriedly. "Your uncle did this?"

Harry nodded fractionally, too tired and weak to move much. As the minutes ticked by, his eyelids began to droop.

"Harry? Stay awake, okay. Don't fall asleep yet. Here, let me see your wrists," he muttered, lifting up Harry's limp wrist. The bleeding had gone through Hermione's makeshift bandages and was seeping into the couch. "Oh shit," Draco muttered, kicking himself for not paying better attention to that. He raced to the cupboard and pulled out more clean rags.

Kneeling down by Harry once again, he wrapped the rags tightly around the boy's wrists, especially the right one where the cut had gone deep enough to open the vein.

Suddenly, somebody entered the room from the hall. Draco looked up in surprise to find Mr. Weasley entering worriedly. The redheaded man did a bit of a double take in seeing Draco, clearly trying to push away any hatred he felt because of the boy's father. His face fell as he caught sight of Harry, who was desperately hanging onto consciousness. The raven-haired boy was soaked in his own blood, and the crimson liquid had seeped into parts of the couch and the bottoms of the sleeves of Draco's pajamas as well.

"Why is he still like this? Where's Sirius and Severus?" he asked anxiously, kneeling down next to Draco and affectionately brushing the hair away from Harry's forehead.

"Mr. Weasley?" Harry whispered, eyebrows furrowed in pain.

"Hey there Harry. You hold on, okay? When you're better, Molly's going to cook you up a feast."

Harry nodded tiredly.

"Sirius and Sev are in there making potions. Spells aren't working because of Harry's immune system problems, so they're making potions that can work without it. I wouldn't interrupt them right now, just in case," Draco explained politely, slightly miffed by the man's presence in knowing how horribly he had gotten on with his own father. He still remembered the fistfight in Flourish and Blotts between the two fathers in his second year. "I'm tying to keep him awake and keep control of the blood loss situation, but it's hard because he has so many wounds that are bleeding and not stopping," he added miserably.

Mr. Weasley nodded. He grasped Harry's right wrist tightly, pressing the rag into the wound. Harry shut his eyes tightly in pain. Draco put a clean rag up to the head wound, now that the other one had become saturated in blood.

"Everybody's really worried about you, Harry," Mr. Weasley said. "They all want to come and be with you right now. When I told them that they would have to wait until later, they nearly turned on me," he said with a sad smile. Harry smiled weakly, his eyes resting closed.

"Open your eyes, Harry," Draco ordered worriedly. "Don't fall asleep yet, okay?"

Harry wrenched his eyes back open miserably.

"Sev, you might want to hurry up," Draco called anxiously.

"Is everyone okay?" Harry whispered, though it took a tremendous amount of effort to do so.

"A little shaken up, but yes. They're all fine. They're just scared because they're worried about you so much," Mr. Weasley said fondly.

Seconds later, Snape and Sirius came back through the door. Snape was finishing stirring the potion they had just made and Sirius followed behind him, arms laden with already-made potions or ingredients, looking as if he had just grabbed everything and come.

Sirius went pale as he saw the condition of his godson and Snape frowned deeply, a fleeting look of panic skittering across his features.

"Arthur?" Sirius asked upon seeing the redhead. Mr. Weasley gently laid down Harry's wrist and walked up to Sirius speaking quietly.

"Sirius, I'm sorry but as soon as you can, you need to come down. They would usually need Harry's testimony, but I pulled a few strings to allow it to slide, especially since there were so many witnesses. They need your statement as well, along with some other stuff that you need to be there for since you're Harry's godfather: paperwork, certain decisions about what to do, and such. They're eager to help since they found out who Harry was, but they need you down there," he explained sympathetically.

"I can't leave him now!" he hissed as he set down the beakers of potions next to Snape who had taken Draco's former position.

"Black, get over here," Snape ordered. Sirius jumped to his side. "Distract him. The initial effects of this potion are extremely painful," he said quietly, preparing to inject a potion into Harry's arm to cure the boy's concussion. "Arthur, if you could look through these bottles and find the Blood Replenishing potion. It should be a deep red. Draco, look for the Coalesque Drought. It's a light brown. And if you see any Aquana pull that out too to dilute the Coalesque," Snape instructed. "All right, Black, I'm going to inject it now."

Sirius held Harry's face in his hands and looked into the pain-filled emerald eyes.

"Harry, this is going to hurt, okay?" he warned his godson. "Just look at me, I'm here."

Snape pushed the needle into Harry's arm and pressed down the plunger, releasing the potion into Harry's bloodstream.

Seconds later, Harry's eyes shut as he cried out in agony, too weak to fight the pain.

"Sirius?" he cried out desperately.

"I'm here, Harry," the Animagus said sympathetically. "Snape, when's this going to be over?" he called over his shoulder.

"Soon."

"It'll be over soon," Sirius related the news to his godson. Harry whimpered and clenched his teeth.

Then, as suddenly as the pain had come, it was gone. Harry took a deep shuddering breath and closed his eyes. Sirius smoothed his hair away from his face, as Hermione had often done when he was sick with cancer. The action soothed him and he tried to ignore the pain in the rest of his body and focus on Sirius gently smoothing back his hair.

Snape got the next shot ready as soon as Mr. Weasley found the potion.

"Oh good, Draco, you found the two potions. Now I want you to pour ten milliliters of the Aquana into fifty milliliters Coalesque. Then cork it and swirl it until it appears mixed. Can you do that, Draco, or do you want help?" he asked in a no-nonsense tone.

Draco stood up quickly. "I can do it," he said firmly before hurrying into the other room of the lab.

Snape was just finishing injecting the Blood Replenishing potion, which wasn't painful but did make Harry's stomach feel a bit queasy, when Draco returned with the next one.

"Looks perfect," Snape announced upon inspection. Draco looked relieved.

Snape quickly injected the potion to clot the blood at the surface of Harry's wounds. Besides making Harry's skin tingle a bit, he could feel no effects, much to his relief.

"How are you feeling now, Harry?" Snape asked.

"Fine," Harry said quietly, looking down at the many gashes and forming bruises on his arms as he sat up.

"Unfortunately, I think that's all the potions your body can handle for tonight. Those cuts will have to heal on their own. Is anything else major hurting?" he asked seriously.

Harry shook his head dejectedly. He was aching from head to toe and his skin was sore and stung wherever there was a cut or a bruise. He was feeling slightly nauseous and his head was pounding softly, but all this was to be expected and otherwise, there was nothing that he could feel was physically wrong with him.

"Sirius," Arthur prompted with a sympathetic gaze. Sirius sighed and turned to Harry with a sad smile.

"Hey kiddo, I have to go down and fill out some stuff and talk to some people to straighten everything out. I wish more than anything I could stay, but we're trying to get it so you don't have to testify, so I have to go. Are you going to be all right here?" he asked softly.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he said quietly, still looking down at his lap.

Sirius patted him on the shoulder, but immediately withdrew his hand when Harry flinched. He stood and turned to Snape.

"Is it okay if..." he started.

"Harry can stay as long as he likes. There are certainly enough rooms," Snape interrupted.

"He can stay in my room. We can put in an extra bed, or transfigure mine into two," Draco piped up. Harry looked up at him thankfully, not really wanting to be alone.

"Thank you," Sirius said sincerely to his one-time archenemy.

Snape nodded. "Harry's welcome here anytime," he stated firmly.

Sirius gave Harry a gentle hug and then reluctantly left with Mr. Weasley who handed Snape Harry's glasses that he had found next to the boy's sleeping bag.

"Draco, why don't you go find Harry an extra pair of pajamas and bring them to my bathroom? Harry, let's get you cleaned up," he said helping the boy slowly to his feet. Harry realized he was weaker than he had realized when his legs nearly gave out. Snape quickly wrapped his arm around the boy to keep him standing.

He led Harry through a very large and elegant bedroom to a stately bathroom. Harry looked around in awe as he often did when seeing a new room in Snape manor.

Snape walked over and began filling the bathtub with warm water. Harry was about to protest, since he was more of a shower person, but realized how much the hard water raining down on his skin would hurt at the moment.

A wave of dizziness came over Harry. He slid down the counter into a sitting position on the floor. He looked up to where he was holding the edge of the counter and immediately felt bad for the smear of blood on the white tile. He looked down and realized he was getting blood all over the floor as well, but felt too weak to get back up. The whirring sound of the water filling the tub was soothing and he would have been content to stay there for the rest of the night.

Snape turned around and saw him on the floor. With a sigh he walked over and pulled Harry back to his feet. Harry clutched the man's arm to steady himself as his vision swam.

"I've got you," Snape said reassuringly, making sure to have a firm hold on Harry.

"I'm okay," Harry muttered, stepping back out of Snape's hold. "I think I've got it now, thanks," he said, implying that Snape could leave. The Potions master raised an eyebrow.

"I'm staying in here with you, so you can go ahead and get undressed," he said blankly.

"Huh?" Harry squeaked.

"Oh brother," he said with a roll of the eyes at Harry's obvious uneasiness. "First of all, I doubt you could reach your back which have cuts that need to be cleaned. Second, you can hardly stand. I don't want you passing out and drowning," he explained.

"I can manage by myself," Harry said indignantly, swaying a bit as his head swam dangerously. Snape darted forward and caught him as his knees buckled and pulled him back to his feet.

"Oh yes, obviously," he said sarcastically.

Draco chose that moment to appear in the doorway holding a pair of folded pajamas. As a bit of a joke he had chosen his Slytherin ones for Harry, and Harry grinned at the choice.

"I knew you two were trying to convert me," he joked weakly. Draco smirked but looked worried that Snape was apparently the only thing keeping Harry on his feet.

"Draco, do you have any swim trunks for Harry to borrow?" Snape asked with a sigh. Harry shot him a grateful look. Draco smirked.

"Bashful, Harry?" he asked with an evil grin.

"Oh bugger off," Harry muttered with a glare.

"Draco," Snape said in a warning tone. The blonde nodded and ran off to find some.

Harry stepped back and tried lifting his once-white shirt over his head, but quickly found how painful that was. His arms didn't seem to want to move like that. He dropped the edge of his shirt and grabbed onto the counter again to steady himself, kicking himself for being so weak.

"Arms up," Snape ordered curtly. Harry blushed and lifted his arms up as Snape carefully pulled off his shirt as if he were undressing a small child.

When the shirt cleared his face, he saw the angry look on the professor's face as he saw precisely how bad Harry's torso looked. Harry looked down and winced. The bruises were coming in dark and though they were closing up thanks to the potion, every gash could be seen and looked nasty.

Draco popped back into the doorway holding up a pair of swim trunks triumphantly.

"Found….some," he announced, voice faltering as he took in the sight of Harry's chest and arms.

Harry wrapped his arms around his waist self-consciously and refused to meet Draco's eye as the blonde looked at the wounds in horror.

Snape came to Harry's rescue and taking the swimsuit from Draco, he politely told the boy to get back to bed.

"But…" he began to protest.

"No, Draco. You don't have to go to sleep just yet, but go stay in your room for a bit," he said in a tone that didn't allow for any arguments. The blonde scowled at his godfather and stomped away as Snape shut the door.

Snape handed the shorts to Harry and turned around to face the corner. "Go ahead and change there. I'm not going to look," he assured him.

Harry quickly changed into the swim trunks, or as quickly as his body would let him. It was at least easier than removing his shirt had been.

"Alright," Harry announced and the Potions master walked over and turned off the water on the bath. He helped the unsteady boy into the bath and slowly helped him to sit.

Harry took a shuddering breath and grimaced as the water stung his wounds like fire.

"I know it hurts, but it's best to get this cleaned now before it gets caked on," Snape said, kneeling by the bathtub so he was nearly level with Harry. The professor rolled up his sleeves and dunked a washcloth into the water. While Snape began to gently clean the blood away from his back, Harry began to rub the red off his arms.

At one point, Harry's head began to swim violently and he had to grab the side of the bathtub to steady himself.

"I've got you," Snape reassured him, holding him upright in the tub until his head leveled out a bit.

"Thanks," Harry murmured once his head cleared. Snape merely nodded and continued with Harry's back.

"What did he hit you with?" he asked, clearly trying to restrain anger.

"What?" Harry asked, panic gripping him instinctively at questions about his home life.

"These…_injuries_," he said, gesturing at the many gashes and bruises on Harry's back, "were not caused by a hand or a shoe."

"Er…which one?" he asked, trying to look over his shoulder, but quickly regretted the action as it irritated a cut on his neck.

"All of them," Snape said curtly.

"A leg of a chair and some broken china that he threw," he said quietly, rubbing blood from his legs.

Snape closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths. "He beat you with a piece of wood?"

Harry looked sadly down at the water and nodded fractionally. "Do we have to talk about this?" he asked quietly.

Snape thought about it momentarily. "Not now, but eventually." He stood and turned to face Harry, lifting his wand above the boy's head. "Head back," he instructed.

Harry tilted his head back as warm water poured from the older man's wand. Snape ran his hand through the messy locks to dislodge any blood that was sticking. He ordered Harry to close his eyes and moved the gentle stream of water to his forehead, carefully cleaning the large gash there that had been bleeding so profusely earlier. It was still raw and Harry winced as Snape's fingers carefully wiped the blood away.

When he was done, Harry opened his eyes and looked at the water he was sitting in. It was an eerie red color. He now remembered why he had initially not wanted a bath.

Snape noticed his expression and with a flick of his wand, the water went back to clear again.

Snape soon grabbed a towel and helped Harry out of the bathtub. He let the water start to drain and then helped towel off Harry's back before instructing him to sit on the closed toilet seat. He opened a medicine cabinet and returned to Harry's side with a bunch of bandages.

There were ones that looked like Bandaids, but without the sticky part. It stuck to his skin nevertheless, but Snape assured him they were painless to remove. He gently stuck one to the gash on Harry's forehead and the wound on his neck. Next, he began wrapping gauze around Harry's upper torso, where there were several of the deeper lesions.

"You're not going to bandage all of them are you?" Harry asked apprehensively. His whole body was littered with wounds. If Snape tried to cover them all, Harry would end up looking like a mummy and be unable to move.

"No, just the deep ones. After I finish your chest, I'll just do your wrists and that will be all. I don't want them to re-open," he explained. Harry nodded as Snape wrapped the strip of gauze around for the final time and cut it off, using a quick spell to make the end stick to Harry's skin. Harry looked down and frowned slightly. He was wrapped in the bandages from just under his arms to the bottom of his ribcage and couldn't move very easily.

Snape finished wrapping up Harry's wrists and stood.

"How is that?" he asked.

"Am I supposed to be able to move?" Harry asked as he tried to turn his torso or bend forward without much success.

"No."

"Then it's perfect," Harry said sarcastically.

"You shouldn't be moving around with your injuries anyways. You'll live as I don't think you'll be doing any gymnastics tonight," Snape said with a smirk.

"Aw man, we'll there's always tomorrow I guess," Harry said in mock-disappointment, though the joke didn't have the same affect with the sadness behind his smile. Snape knew the boy was trying to push the night's events out of his mind with his small jokes, but also knew that the task was impossible. Each time Harry pushed his emotions away, they returned seconds later, bringing with them pain that could be detected in his emerald eyes.

Snape handed Harry the pajamas and his boxers, once again turning to face the corner so Harry could change. This time Harry had even more of a difficult time since, with the bandages, he could barely bend down to pull the pants onto his feet.

Yet Snape exercised more patience than Harry had thought possible for the normally snappish Slytherin Head of House. When Harry became frustrated with trying to pull his shirt over his head when his body clearly objected to such movements, Snape asked permission to turn around and then gently helped Harry get the shirt on.

"It's okay to ask for help, you know," he said meaningfully. Harry dodged the comment by feeling the fabric of the Slytherin nightclothes.

"Hey, how come you guys get such comfortable pajamas? Are these silk?" he asked indignantly. "We just get cotton ones!"

Snape chuckled, something that neither of them were quite sure they were used to yet. "Professor McGonagall believes that school funds are not meant for trivial things such as nightclothes."

"And you do?" Harry asked as he was helped to his unsteady feet, pressing his palm against his head to fight off the dizziness.

"Only the best for _my_ students," Snape said with a smirk as he aided the Gryffindor in slowly walking out of the bathroom and through the bedroom to the hall.

"I guess I really did choose the wrong house then," Harry muttered, once again fingering the fine material. "Maybe you should show people these before they're sorted. You might get more students that way."

"Are you suggesting I have a fashion show to entice people to join my house?" he asked with a slight air of disgust. Harry burst out laughing, but immediately regretted it as white-hot pain shot through his chest and head. He groaned painfully and grabbed Snape's arm desperately as his legs wobbled dangerously.

Snape put one arm around the boy's back and the other under his knees, lifting him into his arms in one fluid motion.

"I can walk on my own," Harry protested, horrified at the humiliating thought of being carried. Snape showed no sign of putting him down.

"Swallow your pride for the night, Harry. You are embarrassed far too easily," said Snape as he started up the stairs. "Besides, flat ground, maybe, but the stairs are a different story. You need to relax in order to heal, not try to prove yourself."

Harry said nothing more, just settling for feeling mortified in silence. He was vaguely surprised at the ease in which Snape carried him up the stairs and down the hall to Draco's room.

Just before reaching Draco's door, Snape set Harry down. The boy shot his professor a grateful look, thankful that his new friend wouldn't see him looking so pathetic.

Snape held onto his arm to help Harry walk into Draco's room, where the blonde was waiting anxiously. As the pair walked in, Draco jumped up from his chair and threw his hands in the air.

"Finally!" he exclaimed. He was about to continue, but Snape silenced him with a glare. Draco glared back, slightly bitter that he had been forced to wait alone in his room when he was secretly worried.

With a flick of the wand and a quick incantation, Draco's grand bed split into two separate ones. Though the blonde usually would have been horrified at any of his things being magically spliced, this surprisingly didn't miff him at all.

Harry winced as Snape helped him climb into the high bed. He murmured his thanks and refused to meet anyone's eye.

Draco shoved passed his godfather to Harry's side, causing the Potion's master to roll his eyes in annoyance. The blonde smirked at Harry and crossed his arms.

"You look like a Slytherin," he informed Harry.

"Merlin help me," Harry muttered as he settled under the green and silver covers.

"We'll have to work a bit on your cunning and then we'll have the hat resort you when we start sixth year," Draco said slyly. Harry groaned.

"I think you should resort into Gryffindor. We've just got to work on that whole chivalry bit," he said, though his usual playful tone came across as tinted with sadness, lessening the effect of the teasing. Draco's expression betrayed his worry in hearing the usually cheerful boy so distraught.

"It's time to go to sleep, so you two better stop chatting before I have you both resorted into Hufflepuff," Snape threatened lightly. Draco looked especially horrified at the thought and, after casting a scowl at his godfather, retreated to his bed.

Snape turned to Harry, strategically moving to block Draco's view of the raven-haired boy.

"I can't give you any more potions right now, as I need to have the others do all the work they're supposed to. That includes Dreamless Sleeping Potion," he said very quietly, aware of his godson holding his breath to try to catch the words. "I'll be in the lab if you need me for any reason."

Harry nodded numbly and turned to lie on his side facing away from the other two.

Snape walked over to his godson and pulled the covers over him, effectively tucking him in. Draco looked at him a bit oddly, as this was not something the man did often, or at all for that matter.

The truth was that though he had been able to keep his cool throughout the night, the situation had deeply disturbed Snape, perhaps even more than it had the first time he had found out about it. He couldn't fathom somebody treating a child, especially the child they had been entrusted with, like Harry's relatives treated him. He never wanted Draco to fear him as Harry feared the Dursleys. Sometime during the night, he had resolved to show his godson that there would never be a reason for that fear in Snape Manor.

"No talking tonight, all right Draco?" he whispered so that only the blonde could hear. "He's been through a lot tonight and he needs to sleep."

Draco nodded seriously as his godfather straightened up. Snape looked at his godson sadly for a moment, thinking of all that both boys had been through, before giving a thankful nod. He flicked off the lights and exited the room, slightly doubtful that it would be the last time seeing the boys during the night.

Draco turned on his side and stared at the back of Harry's head. He stayed silent, keeping his promise to his godfather. He wouldn't have tried to strike up conversation anyways. Despite his teasing earlier, he _did_ understand the seriousness of the situation. It was his own way of dealing with it, trying to make Harry forget what he had just been through, trying to make himself forget his fears. Usually, making fun of people and barking orders at his sidekicks had the same effect, but he knew he couldn't do that anymore, or at least in this situation.

He had never dreamed of Harry's relatives being this bad. When he had come to the top of the stairs and realized that the bloody, limp body in Sirius's arms was Harry, he had thought that Death Eaters had gotten to him and exacted revenge or something. The fact that it had been Harry's uncle nearly floored him. His own father, though cruel in his own way, had never been like this. This was just…sick.

Sympathy was an emotion that Draco had never understood before now. The combination of worry, fear, and sadness, was something he had never felt for his former friends, or what he had called friends. Yet this ability to nearly feel Harry's pain as his own and the desperate desire to make that pain go away for the other boy made Draco wonder if he was finally beginning to understand what friendship really was.

Draco closed his eyes and soon fell asleep, his mind full of unanswered questions.****

****

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Well, hopefully this chapter was dark and angsty enough to balance out the previous one. I always get caught mid-boogie-down around my house, so I just had to incorporate it. Lol, I'm glad to give you a nice little phrase to use. Use it well. wink Of course! The prank had to be all-out, especially when they're going up against the twins. They aren't easy to prank after all. No no, I made up this movie and the one Harry and Ginny saw in Recnac. I have a bit of a warped mind. Lol. Sorry about the fluff, but what can you do? Lol. Hermione made those comments basically to tease Ginny. I figure she's lightened up a bit after all that happened the previous year. Now you've got me really curious as to what "spunk" means. I'm glad you liked the Petunia/Dudley scene. That woman's really crazy. As to the extreme religious stuff, she hasn't started attending church (surprise surprise, think how much repenting she'd have to do) she's just picking up things from everywhere, reasons to hate Harry, that is. Anywho, PoA was great!

Myr Halcyon: Really? I always thought it was "here, here" but actually yours makes more sense. The way I put it sort of sounds like calling over a dog. Don't worry, you'll never get the hints until the second read through (after the fic is finished I mean), and nobody else has either. But go ahead and put in the effort. It will make the ending that much more of a forehead-smacker. Me? A horror movie buff? Never! Okay, well, yes, but that's not the point. :) 

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Merci, m'dear. Oh, she knew something…she knew that Vernon was out of prison and that Harry had no idea, just like you predicted! I'm so glad you liked the prank! When I was a wee lass, I was a prank queen and did these extremely elaborate pranks. I think I permanently mentally scarred my little neighbor who was the victim of most of them. You've perfectly understood why Ron was mad. Not only is he embarrassed about getting scared with the prank, but he does not think the death or injury of his friends is at all funny. Harry's death, and all the stuff he went through in Recnac, hit Ron really hard, but of course, Harry, being Harry, doesn't really understand how what happened would really affect anyone like that, a problem with his self-worth that he doesn't even realize. Also, Harry doesn't really think he's in any danger at the Stensons. He feels very safe there. Of course, this proves to be wrong. Anyways, Ron is upset, and he shows it to an extent, but he also doesn't want to get into a big fight with Harry about it. As he said in Recnac, he doesn't want to waste time fighting with Harry, especially now that he's realized how precious that is. Lol, I think a lot of people might have missed that last sentence because a whole lot of people never mentioned it in their reviews, which is odd for cliffies. Oh well, I have plenty more cliffies where that came from. grins evilly

**EternallyMine: **No prob. I was going for brownie mix…good call! Lol, the driving lesson story actually happened to me, minus the running into a tree, with my sister and I. I had to put it in, because it's so funny now, though it was really scary at the time. Lol, I'm so glad you liked the prank! When I was younger, I did really elaborate ones all the time. I just had to put one in with the use of magic. I think I would have killed them if I were one of the Weasley boys, though. I can dish it out, but I can't take it, just like Ron, so don't worry, you're not the only one. Liked the quotes!

**Anilia Hawkeye: **are you serious? Well obviously you've never met any of my friends or family. They're all chickens and whenever we go to see scary movies, they all end up sneaking over to the nearest kids' movie. One time, a friend of mine had been linking her arm with mine throughout the movie because she was so scared, and at a pop-out scene, accidentally clawed at my face with her fingernails! I had a gash right near my eye. And then she bolted from the theater after apologizing. Good luck with the clue-searching. You'll need it.

**ImaginaryFriendless: **Well, that's why I took two months off and had long-between updates at first. I've been writing the fic out in its entirety. Of course, it's still not finished, and there's a lot of polishing needed for parts of it, but it's quite well along. That's why I can post pretty quickly, because most of the chapters have been previously written. Petunia was whispering in Dudley's ear not to tell them that Vernon was in fact NOT in prison. Don't worry, we have just plunged into the deep end of a swimming pool filled with angst and it'll be a while before we can climb back out of it, if we even can at all. I'm glad you like my characterization so much! You're compliments made me blush furiously and then do a very embarrassing victory dance.

**Lorie1101 **(I'm so glad you liked the chapter and think I can incorporate both humor and angst into it, that's definitely what I'm trying to do, and I'm glad you think it's working.), **Velith **(no, none of the films in the two stories are real. They're figments of my warped imagination lol. While she was asleep? Ouch, that's cruel! Lol, but of course that's why it's fun. The Fat Lady was brilliant along with the rest.), **kneh **(Fred's with Angelina Johnson already, so he's all set!), **Siri Kat **(Hermione doesn't know as much as everyone else, though after the train station incident, the thing in the grocery store, and the events from this chapter, she's beginning to get a pretty good idea of it.), **Toffee **(I'm so glad you decided to review! Lol, all the questions you asked, I unfortunately can't really answer, at least for now. But keep reading and you'll have your answers in time. Lol, much more depressing scenes ahead, but keep reading!) **WithinEveryDarknessIsLight **(lol, well thanks for putting up with the ship. FYI, I'm really going to go off that aspect of the fic for a good while, so don't worry. We're heading into angst territory, not much room for fluffy romance. I would love for you to pop me an email with any questions you'd like and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. I love talking about writing), **fantagal, Xaphania **(I'm glad you liked Recnac. I hope to make this one as much of a tear jerker, though we won't get into that for a bit.), **Von **(congrats, you got who the person at the window was!), **angeli0722, Ms Hobgoblin, yellowpages, Musicstarlover **(well, your second question's been answered. [Vernon, in case you missed that lol] and you'll just have to wait to see about the first.), **jo0609, Kjkit, ckat44, Wynjara, Lindiel Eryn, horsefan, Lavender Brown **(thank you so much for popping in all those little reviews for all those chapters! I'm so glad you like my work. Lol, Dr. Dray, that's so great. I look forward to your reviews), **Mayhem **(lol, mean? Well…yeah.), **catiechan, Dea Puella, hedwigs-biggest-fan, Phoenixmarauder, lasuga89 **(lol, I'm so glad you like it!! Thanks!), **Crystal113, E.L. Prongs **(don't worry, you'll get plenty of angst, and much of it will be between Harry and Sev cough next chapter cough), **Atticus J. Finch, Kevin-McKay **(ooh, Malfoy Eater…me like! Lol. Good guess, though no enchilada! But even wrong guesses are better than no guesses at all. I like them because they let me know when I'm being extra mysterious. Lol.), **CharmingCheese**, **HG/HrRFan4ever** (tell me about it! Lol, I'm very lucky to have very many HP fans at my school, though there are only a few of us who are as obsessed as I am. Lol), **ChildOfDarkness **(I agree. "The Ring" is the only movie that has ever really scared me. Don't worry, just for you, I'll be laying guilt trips on just about everyone in the fic, even if they don't happen for awhile.), **shadowarwen **(No, no, the movie was only a figment of my rather warped imagination.), **venure, cintishortstop, Black-Rose1212 **(no, not a real movie. I'm glad you thought it was clever!), **ThreeToedSloth **(Thanks! Good luck with finals.), **gina87, Bosson12787, FireWiz **(for both, you'll just have to see!), **Nation El-Diablo, Cestrel, Earthmom, Alternativelyspliced **(you got it, well with the first guess, though I really liked the Snape theory. It made him sound so adorable.), **Sailor C, mysticxesperanza, magnum-man-05 **(lol, that's so awesome! Thank you so much!! Lol, okay, I don't have many questions yet, but I'll definitely keep you in mind for contact in the future for any questions I might have, deal?) **Loures, lost angel92, Ashes7 **(hey, that movie is very scary. It's the only scary movie that has ever actually scared me, and I've practically seen them all.), **Madame Moony **(well I'm glad I could appeal to your odd sense of humor!), **Arctic Wolf2, dana **(thank you! I try to make my dialogue realistic and in character, because I agree, I hate it when people make the characters speak strangely, or too proper or something, you know? I'm so glad you think I portray it as natural, since I really try to do that.), **angel74 **(okay, first and foremost: update!! Please, I beg you!! Okay, anyways, thank you so much! Yes, I am a bit evil, aren't I? But that's what makes the angst…angsty. Lol, I could only dream of being an author, and that's the exact type I'd choose. I'm glad you're liking the fic!), **EriEka127, Savoy Truffle **(lol, I know, Harry is major baby cute…along with regular cute…and hot, but I know what you mean. I pictured a sheepishly adorable look when he discovered he was being watched. Yeah, I know (about the kids that is). Kinda weird. Lol.), **lyss **(ah, my sister was always in on all my real-life pranks. It was my poor little neighbor who suffered, but she deserved it. She was a spoiled brat, and the unfortunate victim of many very elaborate pranks.), **torifire126, athenakitty **(Mr. Weasley's the most fascinated by Muggle stuff, but all of them are fascinated to some extent. Lol, I'd say a no for the next two questions. Harry doesn't mean to push Snape's buttons. He just was trying to have a casual relationship with him and teases him sometimes.), **Shawn Pickett, A-Brighter-Dawn **(lol, yeah! I hope to continue to make you cry…in a not sadistic way…really!! especially later in the story, but I guess we'll see!), **corinnetkn24, MissLilyStar, WhiteTiger9984, X-Goddess of Imaginary Light-X **(lol, Weasley bums indeed!)**, happigolucki616, David, AgnesSophia**


	12. Repercussions

**Author's Note:** Hey all.  Ugh, Friday night was Senior Grad night, an all night venture that still has me sort of slumping around tiredly.  But hey, I got hypnotized by a professional hypnotist.  It was very weird and very cool.  Of course, I did dance the YMCA in front of about half of my senior class and try to stomp imaginary leaches on the ground…oops?  Lol, and my friend, who was also hypnotized, tried to wrestle my shoe off my foot and dragged me half across the stage before getting it off and having me latch onto his leg trying to get it back, all of this happening in a strange daze.  **IMPORTANT: ** Okay, so I'm off to London for two weeks (woot woot!) and though I'm very excited and will hopefully be able to plug more British-isms into my work, I'll have no computer access, or at least none where I can update.  And then, when I get back, I have to polish up and finish the next chapter, so it'll be a little over two weeks before my next update.  Do not panic.  Just give me lots of reviews and I'll give you a really cool chapter when I get back, and maybe I'll make it extra long if you guys entice me with reviews!  Lol.  I can't wait to go to King's Cross and try to walk through the barrier!  Then (making sure impressionable little kids are around) exclaim to my friend, "Oh no, Dobby must've closed the barrier again.  Let's go see if the Weasleys can give us a lift in their flying car."  Alright, alright, enough of my blabbing.  Here's the fic:

Only a few hours after the two boys had gone to sleep, Draco was abruptly pulled from unconsciousness by a loud commotion.  For a moment, he was extremely confused and became panicked, wondering momentarily if Death Eaters were there.  He looked around, finally recognizing his surroundings along with the dark-haired boy in the other bed.  Harry was thrashing around wildly with his eyes shut tight, screaming and pleading with an invisible attacker.

Draco leapt out of bed and raced over, shouting Harry's name.  He grasped the boy's shoulders and shook him slightly, but this only caused him to become even more panicked.

"Noooo!!  Stop it!  Uncle Vernon!  Please no!!  Sirius, 'm sorry!!!" he shrieked trying to push Draco off of him.

"Harry, wake up!" Draco screamed frantically.

He was suddenly met with wide green eyes as Harry sat up abruptly, nearly smacking heads with Draco.  He was hyperventilating, his face covered with beads of cold sweat.  He was shaking uncontrollably as his eyes darted around the room as if someone was hiding in the darkness waiting to attack.

"Harry, breathe.  Breathe," Draco instructed worriedly, but Harry was too panicked to listen.

At that moment, Snape arrived in the doorway, looking slightly out of breath.  Harry jumped when he saw the Potion master's silhouette.  Not being able to see clearly who it was without his glasses, he only knew there was a grown man entering the room, causing him to become even more alarmed.

"No no no no," he muttered frantically.  Snape took a few steps toward Harry, but the Gryffindor quickly backed up until he hit the headrest.  "Please, no more," he pleaded, shaking his head.  Snape froze in his tracks.

"Harry, it was just a dream.  You're safe," Draco said desperately.

"I-I was there!  I was back there!  Oh God and Sirius…" Harry cried wildly, his breathing becoming increasingly erratic.

"Calm down.  You're not there; you're safe.  No one's going to hurt you here," Draco threw out blindly, not sure if he was saying the right things.  He had never comforted anyone before. 

A wave of relief spread over him as Harry closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.  Though his breathing was no longer irregular, Harry continued to shake like a leaf. 

"I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to wake you up," he said numbly.

"Don't be stupid and don't be sorry.  That doesn't matter," Draco said quickly. 

Harry looked away shamefully.

Snape risked walking up to the bed now.  "Harry?  Why don't you come down for a cup of tea?" he tried cautiously. 

Harry nodded, eyes averted as usual.  

Draco insisted on helping Harry out of bed, wanting to help his friend in any way possible. 

"Er…Harry, I think you might need to change those bandages on your back," Draco said with a meaningful look at his godfather. 

Apparently some cuts had re-opened, since there was a bit of blood seeping through the nightshirt Harry was wearing.  Snape gave him a quick nod as Harry murmured, "okay."

Snape led Harry out of the room after the boys said goodnight to each other. 

Harry was shaking so hard he could barely walk straight, but tensed up when Snape tried to steady him.  The head of Slytherin offered to carry him down the stairs, but Harry looked so uncomfortable with the idea that Snape decided not to push it and instead stayed patiently at Harry's side as he shakily made his way down the staircase, holding tightly onto the rail.

Snape led Harry back to his lab and told him to sit on the couch, which was now clean of any blood, while he hurried off to get fresh bandages.

Harry sat wordlessly staring into space as Snape changed his bandages.  The Potions master cleaned off the Slytherin pajama shirt with a quick spell and helped Harry back into it. 

Suddenly, Harry leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Snape's torso and laid his head on the man's chest in a desperate hug, reminding Snape of the time he had hugged Harry in the Hospital Wing.  Harry clung to him shakily, praying to just be held and comforted.  He needed to know someone cared.

Yet, especially after all the recent tension between them, Snape was too shocked to hug the boy back, or comfort him in any way.  He just stood there rigidly, staring down in shock at the head of raven-colored hair that was leaning against his chest.

Harry quickly came to his senses, remembering that Snape was not a father-type figure, but that the Potion's master hated him and was probably disgusted by the boy he despised hugging him.  Harry jerked away and wrapped his arms loosely around himself, looking down at the ground in mortification.

"Sorry.  I'm sorry," he said in distress. "I just…I need to leave," he said quickly, standing up and backing away.

"Harry, no wait, stop," Snape said, mentally kicking himself.

"You don't even want me around," Harry moaned in emotional agony. "You said I was an inconvenience.  Why did you tell Sirius I could…never mind.  I just need to leave."

"Harry, stop," Snape commanded, reaching out to grab a hold of Harry's arm, but he yanked it away.

"Leave me alone!" he snapped tearfully before running from the room.

"Shit," Snape cursed before running after him casting silencing charms as he went to prevent Draco from getting worried and coming down.

Harry ran as quickly as he could to the living room and grabbed the vase of Floo powder off the mantle.  He reached his hand in to grab some, but felt someone put a hand on his shoulder and jerked violently.  The vase slipped out of his grip and crashed to the ground, shattering as it hit the marble surrounding the fireplace. 

Harry immediately dropped to his knees and began picking up the shards of glass, apologizing repeatedly.  He didn't even notice as the pieces sliced up his hands, but Snape did. 

"Harry.  Harry, stop this.  Forget the vase.  Harry!" Snape yelled, grabbing the boy's wrists.  Harry cried out in pain, but _did_ drop the shards of glass he had collected.

Snape pulled Harry to his chest and wrapped his arms around the shaking boy.

"No," Harry cried, struggling against Snape. "Let go of me.  Leave me alone!"

"Harry, calm down," Snape said evenly.

"You're just like everyone else!  You don't give a shit until something bad happens and then you pretend to care just 'cause you feel sorry for me!" he yelled, trying desperately not to break down.  "I don't need your pity," he spat.

"I don't pity you, Harry," he said, trying to hold Harry as he struggled against him.

"You don't even want me here!  You just think I'm annoying!  You never even gave me a chance!"

"Harry, please, calm down and we'll talk about this, but you're going to hurt yourself if you keep thrashing around."

"I. Don't. Care!" he gasped as he struggled weakly against Snape. "It doesn't matter! _ I _don't matter.  Not to anyone!  Why did you have to bring me back?  I just ruin things!  Everybody hates me!  You should have just let me die!"

Snape froze in shock, allowing Harry to finally break free, a little more easily than the Gryffindor had expected, causing him to fall back and hit his shoulder on the side of the fireplace. 

Harry brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, even though it was painful to do so.  He closed his eyes and imagined his mother being there and hugging him and telling him that she loved him and cared about him.  She seemed like the only person who would ever do something like that.  It made him never want to open his eyes again.  Opening eyes would make him remember that there was nobody there that cared about him, that his mother was never going to be there, that she never had been in the first place.

Harry couldn't help it.  He buried his face in his arms and broke down.  He desperately tried to stop himself, not wanting Snape to see him this way.  He held his breath and choked back his tears.  A pain spread from his chest to his fingertips as he forced himself to stop crying, making him clench his fists to try to ease the sensation.  His head throbbed dully as the tears stopped flowing.  He wiped his cheeks on his sleeves and lifted his head now that he had composed himself.

"You don't mean that," Snape said quietly. 

Harry didn't trust himself to speak.  His throat constricted tightly and he felt prickling at the corners of his eyes but pushed it away.

"Don't hide your emotions.  You're going to end up like me," Snape said regretfully.  With much effort, he forced himself to say what he needed to say.  "I don't think you're an annoyance, Harry.  I enjoy it when you're over.  And I _do_ care.  I wouldn't have worked so hard to bring you back if I didn't care.  No matter what I tell anyone else, it wasn't for the research."

Harry continued to stare blankly into space.

"The other day, when I was being a bastard, it wasn't because of you.  I somehow got caught up in my memories of your father and took out my anger on you.  You didn't deserve that and I should have apologized, but apologies aren't something I do well with.  Once again, that's my problem, not yours.  I wish I could take back what I said, but I can't."

He sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. 

"Merlin, I'm horrible at this," he muttered. "You didn't mean what you said about letting you die, right?"

But Harry wasn't sure of the answer to that question, and that fact scared him. 

"I don't know," he whispered.  He was so confused.

Snape closed his eyes.  He had no idea what to do. 

"Harry, why don't you tell me what happened," Snape suggested cautiously.

"You already know what happened," Harry said quietly.

"I know generally what happened, but I want you to hear it from you."

"Why?" Harry whispered.

"Because…because that's just what you do, isn't it?" Snape said, thinking hard. 

He had never comforted anyone but Draco, but the blonde was slightly easier since he trusted Snape more and had more practice telling the Potions master what was wrong.  He had become more tightlipped than he had been as a younger boy, when, with each visit, Draco would lay his head on his godfather's lap and complain how his father had yelled at him or how his mother was ignoring him.  Snape hadn't known what to say back then, and had somehow gotten worse over the years.  After Lucius had disowned Draco, Snape couldn't get him to talk, but every night, the young Slytherin would wordlessly lie down on the couch next to his godfather and lay his head on his lap, as he had when he was little, so Snape felt as he was at least doing something for Draco. 

But at least he felt more comfortable in comforting his own godson.  Harry was a different story and Snape was at a loss.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Harry said tiredly.

"It'll help," Snape tried.

Harry looked down and shook his head.  Snape sighed.

"All right, but you'll have to talk with me…or Black… about it soon," he compromised.  Harry nodded, knowing very well that neither of them would ever willingly bring up the conversation and that the talk would never happen.

Snape stood and walked over to Harry, who flinched as Snape offered him a hand to help him up.

"Be careful not to step on the glass," Snape cautioned as he led Harry away from the fireplace. 

"I'm sorry about the vase," Harry apologized softly.

"Don't worry about it.  I have plenty of vases," Snape said dismissively.

They walked back in silence to Snape's lab, where Snape had to, once again, change Harry's bandages on his torso.  Exhaustion was quickly taking over Harry and his eyes kept slipping closed.

"All right, I want to check your head wound."

"Mm," Harry responded, half asleep.

"Just lie down," Snape said, taking in the fact that Harry was quickly falling asleep.  "Lay your head on my lap so I can check your injury," he instructed.

Harry hesitated momentarily, but was too tired to do anything but follow orders.

Snape gently cleaned Harry's head wound, and then cast a cooling charm on a rag before laying it on the wound for a few minutes to bring down the swelling. 

"Done," he announced, but Harry didn't move.  Snape looked down and realized the boy had fallen asleep, just as Draco had done nightly only a few weeks before.

He slowly eased out from under the boy and stood up.  He went to put a pillow under Harry's head instead, but found that at the loss of human contact, Harry had curled up and his face had screwed up in misery as nightmares began to creep in.

Snape hesitated indecisively, but then quickly grabbed a book.  He lifted Harry's head slightly and slid back onto the couch, resting the boy's head softly back onto his lap. 

The effect was almost instantaneous.  Harry's body relaxed and his face grew less tense.  Snape sighed, realizing that Harry probably had never had much in the way of comfort from others and was just soaking up any human contact that didn't involve fists.

Snape conjured up a blanket and draped it over the young Gryffindor.  He briefly entertained himself by picturing what Harry's godfather's reaction would be to find them like this.  He almost hoped the ex-convict would see Harry lying on his lap, in part because it would almost feel like he'd won something against his old school rival, but in greater part because he hoped it would be a wake up call to him.  Draco had told him that Harry had mentioned that his godfather never talked to him about serious things, and though Harry had apparently said it was a relief to not have to deal with the awkward conversations, Snape was better than most at sensing people's emotions, including Harry's.  He wondered if Black was blind to be missing how much Harry needed the serious talks.  Snape knew they weren't fun, and were very awkward to bring up, but he had done them with Draco and continued to force the two of them to talk about the things bothering Draco every once and awhile.  They were supposed to be taking the places of parents in the teenage boys' lives, and the Animagus seemed to be missing that fact, wanting to be more of the "fun uncle" sort than a parent.  Things were going to have to change, or Snape wasn't sure that Harry would be able to handle it.

.

The next morning, Harry woke up and found himself staring at the door that led into the working station of Snape's lab.  He knew he must have fallen asleep in Snape's office to the lab, but couldn't remember why for a few moments. 

Suddenly, the memories from the previous night rushed through his mind and it felt as if someone had just poured a bucket of ice water over him.  He remembered his uncle's attack, the horrified look on everyone's face, his breakdown in Snape's living room after he had tried to hug the Potions master in a desperate attempt for fatherly comfort.  Harry winced with embarrassment, especially at that last memory.

Suddenly, he realized his pillow was somebody's lap.  He bolted up into a sitting position and gasped at the pain caused by the sudden movement.

"You are far from being fully healed, Harry," Snape said, setting his book down. "You don't want to make sudden movements like that."

"Did you stay up the whole night?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes.  I was concerned about you," Snape said simply.  Harry knew he only said it because of his small breakdown the night before.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep on you," he said apologetically, not meeting the man's eyes. "You didn't have to stay up with me."

"Harry," Snape said sternly, getting to his feet, "it's okay.  I don't need as much sleep as most.  Now let's get you dressed and change your bandages.  You can borrow some of Draco's clothes and we'll have breakfast."

"Did Sirius ever come back?" Harry asked as Snape helped him to his feet.

"Not yet," Snape said sympathetically.  He had been wondering himself what on earth was taking Harry's godfather so long.

Snape quickly changed Harry's bandages, noticing that the Gryffindor refused to meet his eye the entire time. 

Snape made sure that Harry got up to Draco's room, and that the blonde was awake, before going down to see about breakfast. 

Draco rummaged around through his closet, selecting their outfits for the day, as Harry sat in his desk chair.

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked hesitantly.

"Fine," Harry said with a nod, though he didn't meet Draco's eye.

"You want to wear my Slytherin robes?" Draco joked nervously.

Harry smiled with great effort.  "Yeah.  I'll tell Sirius that he left me with you guys too long and you converted me."

"Where is he, by the way?" the blonde asked.

Harry shrugged.  "Maybe he went home to catch some sleep before picking me up."

"I bet he's still filling out forms or something.  The Ministry really needs to do something about that kind of stuff.  When Sev was officially adopting me, we were there for hours filling out forms and trying to get somebody's attention," Draco rambled, something he didn't usually do. 

"Maybe," Harry said tiredly, looking out the window. 

Draco handed him some clothes and Harry took them with a weak smile.

"Do you need help with…" he started awkwardly, but Harry cut him off.

"No," he said firmly.

"I could call a house elf.  They used to help me dress all the time," Draco tried.  "They sometimes still do when I'm feeling especially tired."

"No, I can dress myself," Harry insisted.  "Do you have a bathroom or something to change in?"

"Yeah, right through that door," Draco said pointing to a door near the one that led to the hall.  Harry thanked him and went in to change and closed the door behind him, using the opportunity to get a good look at himself in the mirror. 

He looked a mess.  An absolute train wreck.  The bruises that couldn't be healed the night before now showed up in hues of dark blues and blacks.  The bandage covering the cut on his head was surrounded by darker color, not being large enough to hide the whole bruise.  There was another nasty one on his cheek and his neck, and a couple on his shoulders.  His arms were just littered with them and he was thankful that Draco had picked out a long-sleeved shirt for him.  He was suddenly glad that the bandages around his chest were covering a lot of his injuries, because seeing them all just made him realize how much his uncle had done to him the night before.  They were proof that it all wasn't just a bad dream.

He quickly pulled on Draco's clothes so he didn't have to look at himself anymore.  He wished the sleeves were longer to cover his hands, which were now covered in small cuts from the vase the night before.  The bandages on his wrists poked out whenever he lifted his arms, making him look like he had tried to commit suicide, in Harry's opinion.  He shut his eyes tight for a minute to push his emotions away before going back into Draco's room, where the blonde was waiting for him. 

The two made their way downstairs.  Harry ignored his body's protests in order to walk at a normal pace.  Draco suggested going slower, but Harry just rolled his eyes and said he was fine.  He just wanted everyone to forget the previous night had ever happened. 

Harry was pushing the eggs around on his plate when Sirius entered looking tired and harassed.

"I'm sorry for taking so long.  They had me filling out paper work and stuff all night long, and they kept calling in new people to talk to me and I had to explain everything over and over again," he said quickly.  "Anyways, it's been a very hectic night, but I'm finally here."

"Black, I have a few potions I want Harry to take.  The boys can finish up breakfast while we talk about it and then you and Harry can get out of here," Snape said, standing up.  Sirius nodded and followed Snape from the room.

"How is he?" Sirius asked as soon as they were away from the kitchen.

"How do you think he is?" Snape snapped irritably.

"For once, would you not snap at me or be sarcastic or act like I'm some inferior moron and just answer the damn question?" Sirius said angrily.  "I am well aware he's probably not doing so well with the fact that his uncle beat the shit out of him last night, but would you just give me an idea of how he's handling it?"

"Not well.  You need to talk to him about it."

"I know," Sirius said with a roll of the eyes at the unhelpful advice.

"I mean soon, Black," Snape said firmly.

"I'll talk to him when he's ready to talk."

"No, Black, you have to talk to him now.  I don't care if he says he's ready or not, you drag it out of him.  Force him to talk," Snape argued.  Sirius looked at him in disgust.

"He's not one of your students sentenced to detention where you interrogate him with Veritiserum, okay?  If he's ready to talk about it, I'll talk to him about it.  If he needs time, I'm going to give it to him."

"No need to guess which scenario you would prefer," Snape sneered.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sirius growled.

"It means that you need to grow up and stop trying to be his friend and start being his godfather."

"Oh yeah, I'm going to take godfathering advice from you," Sirius said sarcastically. "Do you even allow Draco to laugh, or is any sort of fun against the rules in your manor?"

"Don't act like you know how I raise Draco" Snape growled.

"Then you don't act like you know how I take care of Harry," Sirius snapped.

"If you don't talk to him, he's going to close you off and retreat into himself," Snape said warningly.

"Harry's been through this before so if anyone knows how to handle it, it's him.  I, unlike you, have trust in him.  He'll come to me when he's ready."

"Oh yes, because he's handled it so well in the past," Snape said with extreme sarcasm.

"He has!  He doesn't dwell on it.  He doesn't let it interfere with his life.  He doesn't have a thousand piercings or tattoos or some obsession with pyromania or something.  He's normal and he's happy, so he must be doing something right," Sirius insisted.

"Are you seriously that naïve, Black?" Snape asked with a sneer. "Why do you think he took that Muggle's cancer on himself?  What his relatives have done to him have left him feeling that nobody cares for him and has decimated his self-esteem."

"Well now he has me, okay?  He knows I care about him.  This isn't like before because now I'm around and he can come to me whenever he wants, _before_ he takes any drastic measures.  Unlike you, _I_ have a little bit of faith in him and know that he's a strong kid and that he can get over this like he has before.  He knows what's best for himself, and he will talk when it's the right time for him," Sirius said confidently.

"Well your _faith _in him is going to destroy him.  He's fifteen, for Merlin's sakes.  Most adults don't know what's best for them, and I would think it's quite obvious by now that Harry does _not _know what is best for him," Snape said angrily.

"You'll always look at him as inferior to you, won't you, Snape?  Is it just because he's James's son, or is it because he's _my _godson?  Or maybe all Gryffindors are just so much dumber than you god-like Slytherins," Sirius growled.  "Well you're wrong.  Whatever prejudices you have against him, Harry's a smart kid who's far more capable of dealing with the shit life deals him than you will ever be."

"You're pathetic, Black.  I admit I've had my prejudices against him in the past, but now it's you who's being blinded by prejudice.  You can't even take my advice when I was the one who stayed with him the entire night!  _I _was the one he first told about this abuse, or did you not know that?  It was _me_ he came to, not you, so maybe you could consider for one second that maybe it was because he knew I would handle it better than you would," Snape yelled.

"Oh don't even start with those little lies, Snape.  Yeah, he told you first, but don't even TRY to make it seem like he came running to you for help.  You just happened to be the first to figure it out because you were around him all the time as his professor, and then you probably forced it out of him before he was ready to talk about it," Sirius yelled back.  "If you had given him time, he would have come to me first, and willingly too."

"If I hadn't made him talk about it, nobody would have ever known and he would have died at the hands of his uncle."

"Forget this.  We're not getting anywhere and I don't have the energy to fight with you over this, Snape, so why don't you give me the damn potions and I can get Harry somewhere he's actually welcome," Sirius said finally.

"Harry is welcome here, it's _you_ who's not.  And don't you dare try to tell Harry that I don't want him here.  You'll just lower his self-esteem.  Plus, he obviously is going to need _somebody_ who will act like an adult about this," Snape sneered. 

 "Just give me the damn potions, _Snivellus_," Sirius said through clenched teeth, resorting to Snape's old nickname from Hogwarts.

Snape scowled at him as he scribbled down instructions for the potions.  "Mature as always, Black," he sneered, thrusting several bottles into Sirius's arms. "Now calm your temper before going back to the kitchen.  In case you've forgotten, Harry's just had to deal with an enraged uncle, he doesn't need to deal with an enraged godfather too."

Sirius glared at him and stalked angrily out the door.  Before walking into the kitchen, however, he took several calming breaths.  Snape came up behind him and followed him into the kitchen without saying a word.

Draco was trying to make conversation with Harry, and Harry was doing a very good job of going along with it.  Snape inwardly sighed, knowing that this outward display of normalcy would only make Sirius less likely to talk to Harry.  It also meant that Harry was trying to hide his pain, and would let it eat away at him from inside rather than let somebody else help him.

"Ready to go, kiddo?" Sirius asked.  Harry smiled and nodded, ignoring the shoots of pain through his body as he got up from the table.

"See you later, Draco," he said. "Thank you for having me over, Professor."

"You're welcome here any time, Harry," Snape said sincerely.  He caught Harry's eyes momentarily, and realized with disappointment that they were filled with mistrust and skepticism.  Harry quickly tore his eyes away and gave a curt nod.

Sirius went to sling an arm over Harry's shoulders, but when the boy flinched and tensed at the move, Sirius thought better of it, letting his arm fall back to his side and leading Harry out. 

"Sev?" Draco asked worriedly after the two left. "Is Harry going to be all right?"

Snape sighed and looked at his godson. "I don't know, Draco.  I hope so."

.

When Harry arrived back at the Lighthouse, Harry looked around to the place he had come to call home in the last month.  But for some reason, it didn't seem the same.  Everything was in the same place, everything was as it should be, but was different somehow.  It felt like a place he was visiting, like the Burrow felt when he stayed there for a while, or like the room he had stayed in at the Leaky Cauldron.  He felt like a stranger to the place, like he didn't belong and would be leaving as soon as he wore out his welcome.  It didn't feel like home anymore.

"You okay, kiddo?" Sirius asked worriedly.

Harry nodded. "Yeah."  He paused.  "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Why don't you go lie down and rest?" Sirius suggested. "I'm sure you didn't get a good night sleep over in that creepy big house with a creepy Slytherin potion master lurking about," he attempted to joke.  Harry didn't find it very funny.

"No, I slept really well, actually," he said, bluffing a little.

"Oh.  Right.  Well, still, no place like home, right?" Sirius asked in a hopeful tone.

"Right," Harry said quietly, avoiding Sirius's eyes.

"How about…" Sirius thought quickly, "Why don't we have a big lunch?  What do you want?  We could do it picnic style or we could eat in your room, whatever you like!"

Harry wanted to decline but forced a smile. "Sure, whatever you want, Sirius."

"How about spaghetti?  It's your favorite," Sirius said enticingly.

"Do _you_ like spaghetti?" Harry asked nervously.

"Yeah, but…"

"Then spaghetti's great, unless you want something else.  You can make anything you want, really," Harry said quickly. "Whatever's easiest or whatever you want."

"You know, Harry," Sirius said awkwardly, "I never got along with my family either.  They disagreed with me on a lot of things, politics and such.  They were horrified that I was friends with Remus.  He was a werewolf and a half-blood.  And your mother was of course a Muggleborn and she was the object of your father's affection, so I was always blabbing on about her as well.  Anyway, as you know, I ran away, but I was also disowned.  My parents were really furious with me.  It was altogether a really hard time.  Luckily, I had people to turn to, especially your father and his parents.  They helped me a lot, you know.  That's what people close to you are there for, you know…to help," Sirius said meaningfully. "Do you know what I mean?"

Harry looked at Sirius intently.  "_Please help me.  I can't start it on my own, I don't know how.  Just ask me about anything.  Please.  I need help_," he mentally screamed as he nodded slowly.  He couldn't just start talking about what happened, he was filled with too many doubts and too much distrust to be able to initiate such a deep conversation about himself.  What if Sirius didn't care?  He needed help but he didn't know how to ask for it.  He didn't want Sirius to think less of him if he asked.  Besides, Sirius had been through so much in his life, would he think Harry was weak for not being able to deal with this?

Unfortunately, Sirius didn't get Harry's mental message and smiled unsurely. 

"Good.  Good.  Um, spaghetti for lunch then, where would you like it?" he asked hopefully.

"Anywhere you'd like," Harry said quietly.  He was disappointed Sirius hadn't tried to get him to talk about what had happened.  It cemented the belief that his godfather didn't really care.  If he had, he surely would have recognized Harry's desperation to talk about it, wouldn't he? 

"We'll decide later.  Play it by ear.  We're a couple of free young men, well, at least you're young, I'm getting up there in the years, but hey, young at heart is all that matters, right?  Right.  We live life at our whim.  We can figure out where we're going to eat lunch when the time comes because we require no planning," Sirius rambled wildly, trying to lighten up the mood.  "But for now, what do you say for a few hours of sleep for the both of us, eh kiddo?"

"Oh yes, of course.  You didn't get any sleep last night, I'm sorry.  Yes, um, you should get some rest," Harry said quickly, feeling immediately guilty.

"All right, and then later, Moony will be coming over.  He'll need to know what happened.  Oh and the Weasleys will want to stop by," Sirius said brightly, as if thinking it would lighten Harry's spirits.  Instead, the color quickly drained from Harry's face.

"Um, today?  Do the Weasleys have to come today?  Can't they come another time?" he asked in a constricted voice, glancing nervously at the fireplace as if expecting them to all pile out of there at any given moment.

"Is something wrong?" Sirius asked worriedly.

"_Everything!  Everything's wrong!_" Harry mentally screamed.

"Um…no.  Nothing's wrong, I'm just sort of tired and I um…I still look like…like this," he said, looking down at himself with all the scratches, bruises and bandages. 

"Harry, the Weasleys won't care," Sirius protested.

"Siri, please.  Professor Snape said I can do some concealing charms in a few days, so it can wait until then, right?" Harry pleaded.

"Harry, the Weasleys are worried sick about you.  They aren't going to wait that long to see you, and I doubt I'll be able to stop them, especially Molly.  Now she's just scary," Sirius said with a slight shudder.  He took in Harry's dejected look and sighed. "Look, we'll see.  We'll play it by ear, okay?"

Harry nodded miserably before heading upstairs.  Sirius opened his mouth to say something to his godson, but couldn't think of anything and closed it again.  He massaged the bridge of his nose and shuffled off toward his bedroom.  Maybe some sleep would help clear his mind.  Maybe when he woke up, everything would be fine again.

.

"Ron, shush, you don't want to wake him," a voice whispered

"I won't, 'Mione.  I just want to see if he's okay," hissed another voice.

Harry tiredly opened his eyes and turned over, blinking sleepily at the two blurry figures.  He started to sit up and paused with a wince, remembering that it hurt to move.

"Ron?  'Mione?" he croaked tiredly, straightening his glasses.  He didn't even remember going to sleep.  He was completely dressed, lying on top of his covers, having covered only a fraction of himself with the corner of his comforter.  He could feel the sore marks on his face from where his glasses had dug into his skin, having obviously not removed them before slipping into slumber.

His two friends smiled guiltily at him before hurrying to his side.  Harry began to get out of bed but they gently pushed him back, Hermione fixing his pillows behind him.  She sat down on his bed next to him and brushed his fringe away from the bandage on his forehead with a sympathetic frown.  Ron, with Hermione having taken the spot next to Harry, scrambled onto Harry's bed to his other side.  He plopped down next to his friend, his back to the window.

"Oh, Harry, I know Sirius said you weren't up to having any visitors, but we were worried sick and the only way to avoid a stampede of Weasleys was to have us come check on you and report back," Hermione said apologetically.  "We've been dying to see you since last night!"

"Yeah, Ginny, Fred and George are close to having panic attacks with worry.  They're all really shook up," Ron added. "Mum's the worst.  She nearly tore off Sirius's head when he told her you weren't up to visitors.  If he hadn't mentioned you were sleeping, I think she would have shouted instead of just growling at him."

Ron picked up one of Harry's arms to look at the damage, and Harry ashamedly pulled it away, pulling down the sleeves of his shirt. 

"You look like hell, mate," Ron said with a grimace.

"Thanks, Ron.  I noticed," Harry said with a frown.

Hermione looked at him momentarily before bursting into tears.  Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, Harry, why didn't you ever tell me?  Why didn't you let us know it was so bad?  He almost killed you!" she cried, pulling him into a hug. "You could have died last night!"

"I'm sorry, I…" Harry started but couldn't think of what to say.

"Harry, I thought you weren't going to keep secrets from us anymore!" Hermione scolded, hugging Harry tighter, causing him to shut his eyes with a shuddering gasp.

"Hermione, you're hurting him!" Ron said urgently.  Hermione jumped away from Harry guiltily. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry Harry, I didn't…I thought you'd be healed better," Hermione apologized.

"Immune system thing," Harry said with a wince.  "It's okay, you couldn't have known."  His two friends exchanged a look and Harry blushed with shame.

"You're uncle's such a bastard," Ron said angrily. 

"He was drunk," Harry said quietly.

"No kidding!  It smelled like he took a bath in vodka!" Ron said bitterly. 

"Are you guys alright?  Are Fred and George okay?" Harry asked.

"Yes, we're all fine," Hermione said. "We were just going insane with worry about you."

"They kept us there _forever_ asking us questions and stuff," Ron interjected exasperatedly.  "And then, when we were finally done, they wouldn't even let us go and see you!  Dad just dragged us home, saying you were fine, but you certainly don't look fine.  That's the last time I believe _him_."

"I _am_ fine," Harry insisted. "It's not as bad as it looks.  I'll be as good as new in a few days."

"Well, I don't know if Sirius told you yet, but your uncle's going to Azkaban.  You don't even need to testify and the officials are going to keep it quiet," Hermione said reassuringly.

"Azkaban?" Harry asked incredulously. "Isn't that a bit extreme?  He's not even a wizard and it's not like he did anything _that _bad."

"Harry, what are you talking about?  He nearly killed you!  If anyone deserves Azkaban, it's your uncle!" Ron said vehemently. 

The two left soon after to go report Harry's condition to all those anxiously waiting at the Burrow.  Sirius gave Harry a few potions to drink and then the young Gryffindor politely refused dinner with the excuse of the potions making him tired.  In fact, guilt was churning around in his stomach, leaving no room for food. 

Vernon Dursley was being sentenced to what Harry believed to be one of the worst possible fates, and it was all Harry's fault.  If he hadn't existed, the Dursleys would have been a normal family, living their happy lives.  No matter how many times people had told him that his uncle's actions weren't his fault, Harry knew they wouldn't be able to deny that none of it would have happened if he hadn't existed.  His uncle was right: Harry had ruined his life. 

Before falling asleep that night, Harry wondered what sort of memories Uncle Vernon would be reliving in the dementor-infested prison.  He momentarily entertained the thought that his uncle would have to relive all the horrible things he'd done to Harry, but quickly pushed aside that notion.  Those memories weren't bad ones for Vernon.  Harry sighed, figuring that the memory of finding Harry on his doorstep would be the one playing repeatedly through his uncle's mind for a very long time.

**A/N**:  Okay, most commonly asked question of the chapter:  Why didn't Sirius just Apparate into the kitchen or think of some better spell to get the door open.  And here's my attempt at an explanation:  First off, though the scene seems quite long because I switch between what's happening in the kitchen and out of it, the actual events occurred in a very short time span, not giving much time for thinking.  Second, Sirius was panicking, along with everyone else, and often in times of panic, it's very difficult to think of the common sense thing to do (trust me, I've been in that sort of situation).  Third, the scene was needed to be that way for the plot, so let's all just pretend my explanation makes an incredible amount of sense, turn the other way and start whistling as we read the rest of the story?  You know you want to!  bribes readers with chocolate

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Hey, thanks for reminding me to update!  I almost forgot!  Lol, I love you too?  I'm so glad you liked the chapter!!  Makes up for those who didn't.  Yup, this is the big thing I was mentioning, though not the big thing of the whole story, mind you.  I still have a main conflict I haven't even touched yet, though I've been discretely setting up for it. Don't worry, you will never figure out what it is until it happens.  The Dursleys need some definite treatment…how about lobotomies all around? Lol, yes, knifey and all together more creepy.  Now he's more intent on killing Harry than just hurting him.  Of course he failed, thank Merlin.  I'm glad you see the reason behind doing what I did with the scene.  I couldn't just have them all rush in and break up all the fun…er I mean _torture_.  Good call with the theme.  That's definitely one of them.  I'm glad you've caught on!  Good sleuthing!!  And it's good to think that all this emotional stuff is building up to something…hmm…what could that something be?  Oh yeah, it's…oops, almost let it slip.  Lol.  Don't you just adore Draco?  I know I do!  grabs Draco and hugs him, much to his horror  Did you realize that in HP3, on the Marauder's Map, they misspelled Moony?  They spelled it Mooney!  Um….hello?  And yes, werewolf Remus looked far too alien-ish.  Oh well, it still rocked.  __

**Dana (Serpent and the Lion): **Yay!  I'm glad you liked it.  Good sleuthing, Harry is definitely feeling like a burden to Snape, especially after what just happened bringing all that up to the surface again.  I'm so glad you think my characters are life-like!  Ooh, now I'm all excited. Keep your eye on the flawed perfection conversation.  You have some great guesses going on, and keep 'em coming.

**Toffee: **Vernon would have searched Ron for his wand and tied him up, but Harry woke up before he got around to it.  You're feeling the same way about Sirius that Harry is, in a way.  I'll bring him into the story more and more as it goes on, but it might take a little longer before he really begins to come in.  Ah, see the itsy bitsy problem is that no one heard what Vernon said to Harry.  They heard muffled shouts and everything, but amidst all the noisy chaos, no one outside the kitchen heard what Vernon said. Problem?  Me thinks so. 

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Lol, thanks! Well, why would Harry know?  I mean, the police didn't really have a way to contact him, or anything and since the Stensons would have told them that Harry had moved away, it doesn't seem like it would be all that pressing to find him and tell him.  Plus, it's not like Vernon was even there for very long, it was just a claim being made that didn't go through without better evidence.  I'm sorry you didn't like the chapter too much, hopefully you liked this one better.  I'm glad you liked what I've done with Ron's character.  I'm rather fond of him myself.  With Vernon's little speech, he's been so obsessed with revenge on Harry, that I figured he would have known everything he wanted to say by heart, having it all run through his head a thousand times a day (he's quite the psycho really). Vernon may not be very bright all the time, but he's been so obsessed with getting back at Harry, this would be the one thing, if anything, that he'd want to get right.  He's put a lot of thought into this.  And the adults beating down on Vernon, well, I really think that's what they would do to someone who had hurt the boy they all love like a son.  I saw this Lifetime movie one time about an abusive guy, and when the male relatives found out what he was doing to his kid, they kicked the crap out of him, and it just seemed very appropriate.  Lol, there you go talking about what's going to happen in the next chapter again (the Snape/Harry convo).  The undressing thing…there are so many fics where Harry's injured or sick and Snape or someone just strips him down an puts him in the bath and I've always thought that it was so beyond awkward.  I could almost see someone like Snape or Draco being fine with it since I'd imagine house elves might have dressed them before or something, but Harry?  No way.  I just wanted to put in my idea of how he'd react to that sort of situation, since I really doubt it would be whipping off his boxers.  Lol.  That sounded a bit wrong.  But no, reviews can never ever be too long, so keep 'em up!

**Savoy Truffle: **Lol, yes, poor Harry!  I think he hates me right about now…and for the past year or so.  Draco could never really be a Gryffindor.  He has too much Slytherin pride.  I saw HP3 at an Imax theater in the States.  It was très cool. Lol, I love Remy too!  I wish I could make him play a bigger role in my fics, but there's just no room for him!  pout Lol, I imagine practically all the characters as sex-gods, but obviously they didn't go with this theme in the movie, lol.  I love Alan Rickman and though I wouldn't describe him as hot, he's definitely one of my faves in the movie!

**MyrHalcyon: **Lol, I like the research.  Your theory is beyond beautiful, very imaginative, and probably one of the most in depth works of sleuthery I've ever seen!  Completely wrong of course, but that's not the point.  Lol. Okay, I think about one of the things you were looking at had any hint in it, though I of course cannot say which one.  The Ron Weasley is Dumbledore theory?  Um….Oh my god it all makes sense!! Or not. LOL.  Keep up the detective work.  I actually really like the detective work and I think that if anyone will figure this all out, it might be you.  You'll never figure it out, but we'll just speak metaphorically now, shall we?  Lol. Keep up the research.  I really am dying to give you a hint but I'm too afraid it would give everything away so I'm going to stay reluctantly tight-lipped. 

**Alex20: **he's not inferior to everyone his age.  In fact, he's ahead of them in a lot of ways.  He's still the best in his class at Defense and he's tutoring Ron in Potions.  He's just normal now, except for his weakness of his immune system. It's not that he benefits from losing his wandless magic in the sense that he becomes more powerful or something, but this is his chance to show that he's a good wizard without an extra crutch.  Really, the wandless magic made it seem more like he was inferior to the rest because he needed that something extra to get where he was.  Now's his chance to prove he can do things on his own.  Maybe he's not all powerful, but the fact that he can get on, deal with this stuff, and still be a good wizard on his own shows his strength better than any coincidental extra magic could.

**X-Goddess of Imaginary Light-X: **good question.  Will I let Harry live this time?  Who knows?  I do, but that's not the point.  Lol, you don't sound terrible.  I love the exact same thing, obviously or I would be writing about it!  Yeah, too bad this isn't slash, but I had to get my H/G piece out there into the world.  Lol, I usually don't write my chapters completely in between updates.  I have most of the story already written out so in between updates I just have to either add things or just polish things up.  The next chapter, however, might actually be a complete "in between chapters" construction since I haven't added enough of what I need into that slot in my timeline of the plot.  Confused?  You should be! Lol.  I loved HP3 as well.  I'm so glad you liked the chapter!!  Hope you like this one as well!!

**EternallyMine **(I love those parts of the movie!  Priceless! Yes he is freaking insane. Poor Ron, he was helpless and probably a bit traumatized by all that, though of course, not as much as Harry.), **Wheezygred **(I'm glad you finally decided to review! For answer to your question, see the A/N, and don't worry about being pushy.  It was actually your review that reminded me that I needed to update, so thanks!), **Velith **(thanks! Voila, I gave you the Harry/Snape angst due to spring up after Snape's outburst.  Still not quite resolved, but that's the way it goes.  Lol, um, sounds like fun!  I want to have sponges thrown at me!), **Belonging, lonlyheart, AgnesSophia **(glad you enjoyed the angst!  No, the magical law enforcement's going to keep it quiet.  It would make for good angst for it to get out, but would unfortunately stray from the plot line…bugger.  I have so many scenes like that.  I loved HP3 as well, and "A Little Princess" is one of my all time faves!), **torifire126, Catiechan **(spot on, girl!  Harry didn't quite let all his emotions break free.  He started to but plugged up the dam before it could explode.  Of course, we all know this can't be good for our little boy-hero.), **lasuga89, Ptijade **(I'm glad you like my fic.  See A/N), **HappiGoLucki616 **(Thanks!), **lost angel92, leontine, Talix **(um…hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this fic's heading into darker territory.  I'll try to keep it from being all depressing, and there's some lighter bits thrown in, but there will be more angst than before, and not much fluff, at least for awhile. I don't know if it'll be too angsty, I'll leave that up to you to decide.), **Milamber **(Mmm, strange.  Good.  I'll take that as a compliment. Lol.  Draco is really a good guy!  His father puts a lot of pressure on him and the poor kid's just confused right now.  He'll see the light!  Hope you enjoy the story anyways!), **Slytherin'sHottiexox **(I tried emailing you and it didn't work, and I've just figured out it was because I was being stupid and thought what you put at the bottom of your review was your email, which it is, just minus the hotmail.com, but I didn't even think of that until this moment and assumed it was at aol.com for some odd reason.  Oh well.), **Julie **(no, no slash.  Sorry if that's a disappointment!)**, Tigerlily, Always Confused **(wow, thank you!  Yeah, Angel74 is excellent.  I hope you're getting along well with your fic!  I couldn't even tell you were German.  Your English is fantastic!), **Zygos **(Very possible, but first, that was a hedge versus a door with a table and a bureau blocking it.  And then, we don't even know if that's what Sirius was using and with all the panic, he might not have even thought of it! Lol, don't you love my pathetic excuses?  I needed the scene to work that way for plot's sake, so please just ignore that little discrepancy. I'm glad you like it though!), **corinnetkn24 **(thanks!), **Wynjara, Madame Moony **(are you kidding?  I loved it!! Well, I'll allow you your difference of opinion of the movie…this time. Lol.  A lot of writing and planning gets these chapters this long, actually, it's mostly due to not being able to cut it at a decent point until it's way longer than it aught to be.  Lol), **Crystal, Angel74 **(Yay!  I'm so glad you liked it!  You should totally write an H/R fic!  I'd be first in line to read it.  You could even base it off this fic if you wanted, a spin-off sort of thing, you know?  Either way, you should.  There's not enough good ones out there.  You're looking into this fic with brilliant sleuthy-ness. Update soon!), **Arctic Wolf2, Earthmom, voxenking, Lorie1101 **(jeez, you went to that great of lengths to read this?  Thank you so much for that dedication!), **LilynjamesAAF, MsHobgoblin, phoenixmarauder, Shawn Pickett, ratgirl, alternativelyspliced **(Don't worry, Sirius still has his role in Harry's life, he's just having a hard time realizing exactly what that is.  I actually do have pictures, but I'm so computer illiterate I have no idea how to put them online.  My friend said he'd help me when I get back from England.), **Ashes7, lyss33, tati1 **(I really hope that's wrong about the fourth movie because I would have a conniption fit.  I hope you can review more often, because I really enjoy them! Hope you continue to enjoy the fic!), **ChildOfDarkness **(lol, don't you just love Harry torture?  Is that bad? I hope not because I love it.  Lol, I would love to see you do that to Vernon, but instead he's being fed to dementors.  They'll take good care of him. Cackles evilly), **A-Brighter-Dawn, Gryphonmistress **(Don't worry, it'll be there, but it'll have to be pushed aside for awhile to make way for Harry-angst), **Blue Phoenix2, kneh13, ThreeToedSloth **(lol, did it really make you gasp? squeals with glee They couldn't hold him without evidence or Harry's testimony of continuing abuse, the Stensons' testimony didn't cut it.), **fantagal, Anilia Hawkeye **(lol, you know, I think I'd be rather disturbed if I was stuck in a similar situation to this one with you.  Lol, your hospital episode sounds so much like something Harry would do!), **shadowarwen, Rhiain, yellowpages, hedwigs-biggest-fan **(don't worry, Sirius will play a bigger role in the future.  Just be patient.  The poor guy still is very clueless.  He's new at this and hasn't quite figured things out yet.), **gina87, Von, icechrist **(ooh, thanks for the conflicting emotions, I think. Lol, I hope to make you cry much more in the future. Ouch, man, that's rough.  Those are certainly dark days.  Hope you continue to enjoy and hope your foot gets better!), **SilverCentaur **(yeah, I made up the scary movies.  Sometimes, I think I've seen too many horror films for my own good, but it does make it easier to construct my own.), **always krissy, Lourdes, Nation El-Diablo, Kjkit, ckat44, Dana a.k.a mysticphoenix **(thanks! I'm so glad you like the characterization! HAHAHAHA That was the most hilarious comment in your P.S.), **Monica85**


	13. Responses

**Author's Note: ** Hey everyone! Long time no post, eh? London was great! I want to study abroad there in college! I went a little insane with the review responses, but what could I do, there were so many! And such good ones. I didn't feel much like writing when I came back, but when I was met with all those wonderful reviews, I got to it and well, here's a sixteen page chapter for you all!

An outsider would have said that things returned to normal after the next few days.

Mrs. Weasley wouldn't stand to go without visiting Harry for another day and tearfully burst into his room, sweeping him up into gentle hugs and planting motherly kisses in his hair, all the while asking about his health, and making her own assessments about it. She apologized for not protecting him better and not getting to him sooner. Harry assured her there was nothing she could have done, but the whole conversation seemed to make him feel worse rather than better, for some reason.

Fred and George also stopped in for a visit, and their seriousness and somber attitudes only made Harry feel extremely awkward. None of them seemed to know what to say and no one seemed in the mood for jokes.

Ginny's was perhaps the visit Harry enjoyed most. She just walked into his room and wordlessly wrapped her arms around his neck. He was thankful she didn't start crying, because he wasn't sure how to comfort her. She also seemed to sense that he wasn't in the mood to talk about what had happened or hear once again what a mess he looked like. Instead, she surprisingly pulled out a bunch of magazines and climbed into bed with Harry, both sitting up against his backboard. They spent the rest of the day taking quizzes out of the magazines, finding out what ice cream flavor they were (Harry was chocolate-crunch while Ginny was banana-rama), what their professions should be (Ginny got Auror, but Harry surprisingly got farmer, something they both had a good laugh about), and what their superpower would be (Harry got invisibility and Ginny got x-ray vision, and though it said it meant she had insight and could look under the surface to people's emotions, she insisted that it made her sound pervy and took the quiz again and adjusted her answers until she ended up with super-strength.)

Hr. Callahan had been shocked to find out what had happened and commended Snape on his healing job. He told Harry to take a day off, but two days later, they began the testing again, much to Harry's dismay. ****

Everyone seemed to have wordlessly agreed to not treat Harry differently and went back to acting the same around him, and Harry did his best to ignore the worried or sympathetic looks that occasionally slip onto someone's face.

The twins began to joke again, Harry began to laugh again, Mrs. Weasley went back to her normal level of fussing over him. It seemed as if everything was as it should be.

But there was something different.

It was hard to notice, but the subtle changes were there. The twins' jokes were almost always done for Harry's entertainment, though Harry hadn't realized it. Harry's laughs didn't sound quite as sincere as they once did and his smiles rarely met his eyes. Mrs. Weasley's fussing had lessened, but when Harry wasn't looking, she was often found staring at him with a sad expression, trying to judge how he was really doing.

Nobody had forgotten the incident, but tried to act like it never happened, for Harry's sake.

Sirius had taken after the twins, trying to make Harry forget his troubles through laughter, and poor Remus had been the victim of more pranks than he had ever thought possible.

Remus had been horrified at what had happened and wasn't so sure he was a fan of Sirius's "let Harry come to them when he's ready" philosophy. He pointed out that when they were kids, Remus had never come to his friends about his being a werewolf, even when he could have used the comfort, and probably never would have if they hadn't figured it out themselves and come to him. Sirius insisted that this was different, that Harry trusted Sirius enough to come to him when he was ready.

Though Remus wanted to stay and try to help Harry, he had already planned and booked a trip to go see his parents. He couldn't get out of it, because it had to be between full moons and the next space for that would be the second half of August, and that was too close to school starting since he had to prepare his lessons and such for the new school year.

Before he left, he sat Harry down for a quick talk.

"Hey Harry, how are you doing?" he asked gently.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Fine, how are you?" he came back with his standard answer.

"Harry," he said seriously, "you know, Sirius is there for you to talk to. He's your godfather and he loves you very much. It's just that sometimes, he just handles things wrong because he's trying so hard to do what's right."

Harry looked down at his comforter and began picking at a stray thread. "That's alright. I don't need to talk with him about anything," he said quietly.

Remus looked at him sadly. "Harry, let me explain some things about Sirius so you might be able to understand him better."

Harry looked up and nodded curiously.

"Sirius…well, Sirius never got along with his parents and then he was out on his own when he was sixteen when he ran away to here. I'm sure you know some of this, but he's never really that open about it, so I just want to make sure you understand completely. Sirius had a decent home life until he got to about thirteen. That's when he started going against his families political views. They were all for getting rid of Muggleborns and thought Muggles were evil, but then at school, Sirius was friends with a bunch of Muggleborns and half-bloods. I'm a half-blood, you know, and we were pretty good friends, so he wasn't too keen on getting rid of us. Plus, his best friend, your father, was absolutely smitten with a Muggleborn, who would, of course, be your mum, so Sirius was always blabbing on about Lily Evans as well. His parents would be spouting out their views and Sirius would always argue with them about it with more and more ferocity until they completely turned on him. They really gave him a hard time. They sort of shut him out of the family. They ignored him, stopped inviting him home for the holidays, and always compared him to his brother. And when Sirius had enough, he just left. His relationship with them was already so strained that everyone was pretty relieved about it.

"Sirius dealt with it pretty well. He had us. He stayed with James and his parents for a while before moving out here, and I know they took him right in, but the whole thing left its mark. Sirius sort of distanced himself from it all and refused any comfort from anyone. He just wanted to forget it, so he threw himself into pranks and friends and school, all to get his mind off how his family, his own parents, had just rejected him. And now, he hasn't the slightest clue how to give comfort. He was never taught how. He's avoided serious subjects for so long that I think he's forgotten that they still exist and just wants to believe that everything can be healed with laughter. Especially after Azkaban.

"I don't know if you really understand what an impact that had on him, but it was thirteen years of living in his own personal nightmares. Now, I think he just wants everything to be happy and perfect to escape that depression he was caught in and he refuses to acknowledge that things might not always be perfect and happy. Do you see what I mean?"

Harry nodded. He now felt guilty for being so selfish. He had been acting all depressed when Sirius couldn't handle something like that.

"You also have to understand that Sirius, in a way, is still mentally in his early twenties. He was put in Azkaban when he was twenty-one and time just moves differently in there. There's this huge gap in time in his life and I don't think he always grasps that it's there. It's sort of like he was thrown fifteen years into the future and is now handed all these responsibilities like being a father-figure to you and being a mature thirty-six year old, and he's not quite ready for it. He's not quite sure what he's doing, but he's trying, Harry. Just give him a little while to figure things out. You can still go to him; I want you to know that. Don't be deterred by any nervousness Sirius might have. He needs it just as much as you do, okay?"

Harry nodded again and Remus smiled at him. Secretly, Harry thought going to Sirius with any problems seemed like the last thing in the world Sirius needed at the moment.

"Sirius does care, Harry. He would die for you in a second, even if he doesn't know how to show it in the conventional way. And remember you can always owl me while I'm at my parents if you need someone to talk to, alright?"

Harry nodded with a forced smile. "Thanks Remy, I'll remember."

"Come here kiddo," Remus said, holding his arms out for a hug.

Harry awkwardly hugged him, but after a few moments found himself desperately wishing that Remus wasn't leaving right now. But of course Harry couldn't ask him to stay just for him.

"Take care, Harry, and I'll see you in three weeks, okay?" Remus said, sounding a bit reluctant to leave.

Harry nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

And then Remus was gone.

...

Harry woke in the middle of the night shaking with fright and frantically pushing his covers away in fear that they were really hands trying to strangle him. He had had another nightmare, as he did every night now. He looked around and made sure Uncle Vernon wasn't somewhere in the room.

He laid back down and tried to get back to sleep, but didn't really want to close his eyes. He didn't want to relive the nightmares again.

It seemed that the night at the Stensons had opened the floodgates for horrible dreams, and none of them were about villains from scary movies. Now, he was once again having nightmares about Cedric dying in the graveyard in his fourth year. There were dreams where Snape told him that he hadn't really given Harry a cure and that he was going to die within a few minutes and ones with Sirius getting fed up and bringing him back to the Dursleys. He dreamed about his uncle the most, with both real memories and others that his mind made up, where Uncle Vernon found him at the Lighthouse and was trying to kill him.

That particular night, he had dreamed that he had walked into the kitchen to find Sirius talking with Uncle Vernon, where the large, beefy man had just finished convincing Harry's godfather that Harry was nothing but a horrible freak and a burden. Sirius had agreed and told Vernon to take Harry back to Privet Drive. The dream then flashed to Harry, lying in his bed at the Lighthouse in the middle of the night. He had heard a creak and looked over to find Uncle Vernon coming out from his closet, a bloodied knife gleaming in his hand.****

"You should be dead," he had said calmly.

Harry had looked down in horror at his stomach to find it covered with blood right before he woke up, relieved to find that he did not, in reality, have a stab wound.

He didn't know why, but nights made him feel so lonely. Lying there in the dark by himself reminded him of when he was younger, being frightened to death in his cupboard, but being locked in and having no one to go to even if he wasn't. He remembered how he always used to hear Dudley run across the hallway to his parents' room and climb into bed with them as they comforted him. Harry had always felt such jealously at those times and would try to imagine that instead of his cupboard, he was really in his parents' bed, that they were still alive, chuckling on either side of him and telling him that he had nothing to worry about because they would keep him safe.

That's what he wanted to do right now, go run into Sirius's room and have Sirius worriedly ask him what was wrong and let him stay for the night so Harry didn't have to be alone.

But he was too old for that, of course. The last thing he wanted was for Sirius to think he couldn't handle things himself or that he was some annoying little kid to take care of. Just as Remus said, Sirius wasn't ready to be a father-figure and Harry wasn't about to force him into it.

On the other hand, he just wanted some company. He felt so alone.

Harry fought desperately against it, but soon found himself quietly getting out of bed.

He knew it wasn't good to be doing this. It was a sign of weakness and he would be mortified if Sirius ever found out. He felt disgusted with himself for being so afraid and needy. Nevertheless, he nervously tiptoed downstairs and down the hall.

He held his breath and gently pushed open the door, finding Sirius lying in his bed, completely asleep. After a moment's indecision, Harry slipped in and sat down on the floor at the foot of the bed, letting Sirius's mere presence keep thoughts of his uncle at bay.

Merely sitting there, listening to his godfather breath and occasionally turn over, relaxed him more than he would have imagined. He felt so much safer and relieved to have someone there.

Harry knew it was a bit dangerous, but he hadn't been sleeping much lately and needed it so desperately. He hadn't felt this safe about going to sleep since the incident at the Stensons a few days before. For once, he thought the nightmares might stay away. Besides, he always woke before Sirius anyway.

He tiredly lied down on the floor at the foot of the bed, so Sirius wouldn't be able to see him if he woke up for some reason, and quickly fell asleep, using his arm as a pillow.

True enough, Harry woke up at the first signs of daybreak, hours before Sirius would be waking up. He silently tiptoed out of the room and made his way back to his own, scolding himself the whole time for what he had done, even if he had gotten away with it.

He changed into his clothes and picked up one of Kota's Muggle books she had lent him on her campaign to re-introduce him to literature, since he had hardly read a single fictional book since he had started Hogwarts. He felt more awake than he had in days, but felt guilty about needing to run to his godfather to get that rest.

Finally, the sun came up enough that Harry could go down and start breakfast, promising himself that it wouldn't happen again.

...

Snape took a sip of his tea and leaned back into the couch. He had just finished telling Laura what had happened with Harry and she was taking a moment to digest it.

"I just can't believe that someone would do that, especially to Harry," she said while she watched Anna gleefully play with a fake cauldron with toy ingredients to through into it.

Snape sighed. "I know, and I can tell it's affecting him poorly but his joke of a godfather can't see it. The last time I saw him, when he came over to see Draco, he was so…different. You could tell just by looking at him. He was fidgeting a lot and looked nervous. It was as if he were afraid he'd do something or say something wrong. Draco said he was really quiet and would just agree with Draco on everything, even where he would normally disagree. And when I was tutoring the two in potions, everything I asked them to do, Harry would jump to do it without any resistance, where the boys usually try to get the other to do it, or at least be more relaxed about it. He was so…overly compliant. Merlin, I would rather be back to the way we used to be where he would glare at me and be defiant," he said with a sigh.

"You're worried about him," Laura said, trying to prompt him into admitting it.

"No, I just…" he stopped and thought about it for a second. "Well, yes. Yes, I am worried about him. He's already done such idiotic things before…" He trailed off with a frown, thinking about the cancer and the self-sacrifice to stop Voldemort.

"I see. He did those things because he has a problem with self-worth," Laura said sadly, smiling at Anna who began running over with a fake jar of bat wings.

"Yes, I think so," Snape said, sipping his tea.

"Sev, is this bait?" Anna asked, holding up the jar and pointing at the word "bat".

"That's _bat_ wings, Anna," Snape answered without any annoyance in his voice. He had gotten used to Anna in the past few weeks, and had even grown quite fond of her, though he would never admit it.

"Sev, will you teach me potions one day?" she asked hopefully, blinking up at him with her big blue eyes.

"Anna," Laura said with an indignant smile, "would you rather have Sev teach you potions than me?"

Anna nodded. "Mummy, he teaches potions to kids! And he's more funny than you."

Laura burst out laughing at the look on Snape's face with that declaration and Anna giggled, climbing up onto Snape's lap and burying her face into his chest.

"You're so snuggly, Sev," she informed him. This made Laura laugh even harder.

"Well, that's certainly not something I've been called before," Snape said, a bit taken aback.

"You know, Sev," Laura said quietly, "maybe it would be good for Harry to spend a bit of time with Anna. It would help him feel needed, and Anna adores him. You know how affectionate she is, and maybe Harry needs that right now, especially from someone he won't feel awkward about. Maybe during your next Order meeting, I could take Draco out and Anna could stay with Harry at his house so he doesn't have to feel awkward about coming here."

Anna perked up. "Harry's going to baby-sit me? When? When? I want to see Harry! I love Harry! He plays with me and tells me stories when he puts me to bed and he makes cheesy things!" she squealed happily.

Snape and Laura exchanged a knowing look and Snape nodded to let Laura know that she was, as usual, right.

...

Snape looked up from searching through a stack of papers as he heard a soft knock on the doorframe. Harry was standing there shyly. Anna, who had been gleefully looking at all the potions ingredients through the windows of Snape's storage cupboards, looked up and squealed in delight.

"Harry!!" she cried happily and raced across the room until she slammed into Harry's legs, wrapping her arms around them in a hug.

"Hey Anna," Harry said with a grin. He looked up at the Potions master. "Um, you were running late so I thought I'd just pick Anna up to save you the trip. Did you lose something?" he asked, watching Snape lift up folders and shifting through papers, looking quite stressed.

"Yes. I had a few reports for the Order that I seem to have misplaced," he said as he looked through his desk drawers again. "I don't understand where it went. I'm usually so organized and I could have sworn it was right here," he said, pointing at a spot on his desk.

"What did it look like?" Harry asked, letting Anna hold onto his hands, walk up his legs and flip over backwards.

"It's a dark green folder with a bunch of papers in it, but I've searched everywhere," Snape said, looking a bit lost.

"Anna," Harry asked, "have you seen a dark green folder that was on Professor Snape's desk?"

"You mean Sev?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Yes. Did you maybe take a folder off his desk?"

Anna looked up at him guiltily. "Um…."

"You're not in any trouble, but Professor Snape really needs to know where it is," Harry said gently.

"I'll go get it," she said, running out of the room.

Harry and Snape were left together and Harry shifted awkwardly and played with the bottom of his shirt.

"So, how are you?" Snape asked in a business-like tone, obviously not used to asking these types of questions. Harry looked up, surprised at the abnormal question from the Potions master. He moved his gaze away again to break eye contact.

"Fine, and you?" he asked, quickly turning the focus away from himself.

Snape just nodded, his inquiry not going as planned.

Anna rushed back in, sheepishly handing over the green folder to Snape, who sighed in relief.

"Now Anna," he said sternly, "don't take things off my desk anymore. They're very important. If you want folders or paper to play with, just ask me, alright?"

Anna nodded. "I'm sorry, Sev. Are you mad?"

"No, I'm not. I just don't want it to happen again."

"It won't, I promise," Anna said sincerely. "Sev, can you give me pigtails real quick pretty please?" she asked eagerly, tugging out the ribbon in her hair to take down her ponytail.

"Pig tails?" Snape asked in confusion, glancing over to his potions ingredients.

Anna nodded expectantly.

"I don't think I have any, and I don't want you playing with potions ingredients anyway," Snape said firmly. Anna looked at him in confusion and Harry grinned.

"No, in my hair," she said, pointing to her head.

Snape looked at her as if she had gone mental. "What would you want pig tails in your hair for?" he asked, perplexed.

"It's a girl's hair style," Harry informed him.

"Oh no, I don't do hair," Snape said firmly as if someone had just asked him to hand over his masculinity on a platter.

Anna looked at Harry hopefully.

"I don't know how, Anna, but we'll see if we can figure something out," he said, taking her hand as she held it out to him.

"Thank you, Harry. You're the nicest brother ever," she said, looking up at him fondly as the three of them walked to the fireplace.

"Brother?" he asked in surprise.

"Yup. You and Draco are my new brothers because I said so. And you're the nicest and Draco's the funniest, like Sev!"

Snape looked back her and then up at Harry.

"She's mental," he said seriously. Anna covered her mouth as she burst out into giggles. Harry grinned.

"Laura wanted me to tell you thank you for doing this," Snape said when they reached the fireplace.

"Oh, it's not a problem," Harry assured him, picking Anna up into his arms as he prepared to Floo away.

"And I…I want to thank you as well," Snape said awkwardly. Harry once again looked up at him in surprise.

"You're, uh, you're welcome," he said quickly as he tossed the powder into the flames, stepping in as they turned green. Anna pinched her nose and squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face into Harry's shoulder as he called out, "the Lighthouse."

Snape sighed and flooed to one of the regular spots for the Order meetings.

.

After making grilled cheese sandwiches and playing spies with Anna for a bit, he attempted to give her pigtails, but for the life of him, couldn't figure out how to get the whole thing to work.

"Harry, you're not good at pigtails," Anna finally concluded, "but I love you anyways." She turned around in the chair she'd been standing on and hugged Harry around the neck, giving him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"You know what?" Harry said thoughtfully. "I have an idea."

.

A few minutes later, Hermione flooed over. Anna peered out at her from behind Harry's legs.

"Anna, this is Hermione. Why don't you go say hello?" Harry encouraged her.

Anna looked up at him questioningly. "Is she nice?"

"Oh yes, very nice," he said with a nod. Hermione grinned at him.

"Is she your girlfriend?" she asked. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and laughed.

"No, she's not my girlfriend. She's one of my best friends," he informed her. "So go say hi!"

Anna shyly looked up at her. "'Lo."

"Hello there, Anna," Hermione said with a smile.

"Hermione knows loads of good stories," Harry said enticingly. Anna's eyes lit up.

"Really?" she asked, looking up at Hermione in wonder.

"Oh yeah. She told me stories for hours when I was sick last year," Harry said, looking up at Hermione who smiled sadly in remembering it.

Anna stepped out from behind Harry and looked at Hermione intently, as if deeply examining her.

"So you can do pigtails?" she asked skeptically.

"I can do pigtails," Hermione said, suppressing a grin.

"I guess you're okay then," she finally announced. She grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her along toward the bathroom, Harry following along behind.

.

After doing Anna's hair, Hermione stayed for a while longer.

Harry put Anna to bed in his room, and quickly told her a story from a movie he had seen at the Stensons' blushing each time he looked up to see Hermione watching him in fond amusement.

"Okay, Anna," Harry said quietly to the half-asleep girl, "I'll come check on you in a bit and if you need anything, I'll be downstairs."

Anna nodded sleepily and Harry and Hermione quietly left the room. The two went downstairs and quietly talked over tea.

A little later, the four Weasleys flooed in, claiming they were taking a break from doing work for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, not admitting that they had all been worried about Harry having to be alone. They were a bit surprised to find Hermione there, but Fred and George conjured up a few more chairs and Harry put on another pot of tea and they all sat around talking.

At one point, Harry looked up, swearing he had just seen something move near the kitchen door. He watched a little longer, and sure enough, Anna's small head peered into the kitchen, pigtails starting to come out, looking nearly asleep where she stood.

"Anna?" Harry asked, halting conversation as everyone looked over to where the small four-year-old stood shyly by the doorframe.

"Harry, can you come check on me now?" she asked sleepily. "Or can I stay up with you for a little while? Please?"

Harry smiled at her. "Alright, come on," he relented, waving her over.

Anna hurried over and scrambled onto his lap, lying back against him. Fred waved at her from across the table, and she tiredly waved back before snuggling into Harry's chest.

When Harry finally carried the sleeping girl upstairs, everyone looked at Ginny's adoring face and laughed.

"Hey Gin, he's good with kids, too!" Fred teased quietly.

"Yeah, better not let mum see him like that or she may order you two to go reproduce instantly," George mused.

Ginny gave him a look that said that she might not mind all that much.

"Gin!" Ron sputtered in horror. "Get your mind out of the gutter. This is my best friend we're talking about here!"

"Well just think, Ron," Ginny said, "you know Mum would die for grandchildren, and right now, you and Fred are the only ones with girlfriends. I'd watch out, Hermione."

Hermione laughed, Ron blushed deeply, and Ginny just smirked, taking a bite from another biscuit.

....

Snape and Laura sat at a small table outside of a quaint little restaurant, watching as Harry, Ginny and Draco walked around, gazing through the windows of all the stores that were in sight of the two adults.

Harry had come with Snape, Laura and Draco to Diagon Alley for the day, where they had run into the Weasleys. Laura volunteered herself and Snape to look after the four redhead teenagers while Molly and Arthur did their shopping. The Weasley parents were to meet them after lunch at the restaurant the bunch were now at, and Snape couldn't wait until they arrived to take their kids away.

Ron, Fred and George were still eating a few tables over. They had refused to speak to Draco or even be around him all day. Ron especially was in a sour mood. While the twins chose to simply avoid the blonde, Ron couldn't help but glaring daggers at him whenever his back was turned.

"Wow, look at the newest broom model!" Ginny said in awe. "The Lightningstrike 2000."

Immediately, the two boys were at her side.

"Wow," Harry said almost lovingly. "It's just…wow."

Ginny and Draco grinned at each other.

Harry turned around and gestured across the street for Ron to come over. Ron shook his head and pointed at his food to show that he wasn't done. Of course he hadn't touched his food in ten minutes, but Harry didn't need to know that.

Harry gestured more insistently for him to come over and pointed excitedly toward the window. Ron just shook his head and turned to the twins to break eye contact with Harry.

The raven-haired boy sighed sadly and turned back around.

"Don't worry, Harry," Ginny said sympathetically. "Same with you, Draco. Ron's just…well he's being a bit of a prat right now."

"No, he just needs time to adjust to all this," Harry said defensively. "Don't worry, he'll come around."

"Well, it's fine with me," Draco said bitterly. "This way, I don't have to deal with him and his little temper tantr…"

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" came a snotty female voice from behind them.

The three whirled around to find themselves face to face with four Slytherins. Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott were obviously the leaders, with Crabbe and Goyle as their bodyguards.

.

Back at the restaurant, Snape saw what was going on and started to get up, but Laura pulled him back down.

"Sev, if it gets out of control, we'll go, but Draco's going to have to face them sometime and it might as well be now when we're here."

.

"You're friends with Potter?! Wow, Draco, you've really gone downhill, haven't you?" Pansy asked smugly. "You became a traitor for what? Two low-class, Muggle-loving Gryffindors. Pathetic."

"No, _pathetic_ would describe your insults. I mean really, Pansy, is that the best you can come up with? Oh wait, I'm sorry. That probably took you a week to come up with. I'm sorry, sometimes I just forget that you're a little…you know…slow," Draco retorted.****

Pansy scowled at him.

"At least _I_ haven't become the black sheep of my family. At least _I_ have what it takes to bring honor to my family name, while _you_ don't even have a family name to uphold any longer since you were rejected from yours," she sneered.

"I _do_ happen to have a family name now, _Pansy_," Draco spat. "It's Snape, but that's a bit out of your league since it actually _means_ something, rather unlike the Parkinson name. What values do your family uphold again? Find the richest possible spouse and latch on?"

Pansy glared at him, but Draco glared right back.

Harry and Ginny watched in near wonder at how high-class people verbally sparred.

"Even your friends have realized what a waste you are, Draco," Nott said coldly. "Isn't that right, you two?"

Crabbe and Goyle nodded and cracked their knuckles menacingly. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Oh yes, you should be so proud to have those two. Where did you find them? In an alleyway chasing their tails, not knowing what to do without someone to tell them what to do? I'll be sure to let you know if I have any other rejected leftovers you might want to pick up," Draco said.

"You know, Draco," said Nott maliciously, "you always thought you were so great, but you're really just nothing. Even your father saw you were a piece of trash he needed to filter out of the family."

A pained look flittered across Draco's face and Harry lost his temper. He stepped forward, twisted his arm back and punched Nott hard in the face.

Pansy shrieked as Nott grabbed his bloody nose. Ginny and Draco pulled Harry back before he could lunge at Nott.

At this point, the Weasley boys ran over to watch the scene, trying to see what was going on.

"I see they even fight in a low-class way," Pansy spat. "What barbarians."

"Oh yeah, because Crabbe and Goyle are really good at using their _verbal_ _intellect _in fights," Harry said sarcastically. The two large boys growled at him and cracked their knuckles.

"Come on," said Draco sharply, "Let's just get out of here. They're not worth the effort."

"Wait, before you go, let me see if I can get this little arrangement straight," Pansy said with an evil grin. "So Potter, you protect Draco from bullies, while he protects you from who?"

Harry looked at her bizarrely and began to walk away.

"Hmm…your uncle maybe?" she asked wickedly.

The Weasleys' jaws dropped and Draco looked shocked. Harry froze in his tracks and whipped back around. "What?"

The four Slytherins grinned evilly.

"Your Gryffindor buddies might be complete idiots, Potter, but Slytherins actually have brains, and eyes," Pansy said haughtily.

"Plus, we've heard some interesting things through the grapevine. I mean when Hogwarts has a bunch of people in it trying to rebuild wards, its not all that inconspicuous to have Professor Snape running through the castle carrying your bloody, unconscious body right after Dumbledore had told everyone you were at your relatives," said Nott.

"Hey, you two shut your mouths," Draco snapped. "This is between us so don't go dragging Harry into it just because you can't think of anything to say to me."

"Okay then, _Draco_," Pansy said with a sneer, "how does it feel to be friends with someone who can't defend himself against a Muggle. Or maybe he didn't even try. Maybe he _liked_ it."

"Be quiet you low-class bitch!" Draco barked.

"Poor little Potter," Nott continued wickedly, "lying down and letting yourself be beaten by your uncle while your whore mother is decaying away in a grave somewhere, with worms crawling around in her eye sockets and…"

Harry lunged at Nott in fury and tackled him to the ground, throwing punches at every place he could reach.

"Go Harry!" the Weasley boys yelled. "Beat the shit out of him!"

Ginny pushed up her sleeves, raced forward and jumped on Pansy. The Slytherin girl shrieked as Ginny gave her a split lip and pulled at her hair. The Weasley boys cheered for their sister.

Suddenly, Crabbe and Goyle ran toward Draco to attack him, but right before they could reach him, they were tackled from the side by the three Weasley boys. Draco jumped into the fray to help keep the two monster-sized boys down and to get some small revenge for the two turning on him.

Nott and Harry were rolling around on the ground, having the most intense fight of them all, trying to cause each other as much pain as possible. Harry knew from being beat up by Dudleys gang which places hurt the most to be hit in, and how to make his fist cause the most pain. He was almost thankful Dudley and his crew had taught him this, even when they didn't mean to.

Of course, Nott was putting up a good fight himself and kept flipping himself on top of Harry to gain the advantage of height, but then Harry would manage to flip them over again.

Harry hardly noticed when somebody's arms slid around him until he was lifted off of Nott, still trying to punch and kick him. He tried to escape the arms that were holding him back, but couldn't break free.

Nott hurriedly got to his feet and spit blood onto the ground. Blood was gushing down from his nose and his clothes were ripped and streaked with dirt. Harry was pleased to see that in a few hours, Nott would have a shining black eye. Of course, he knew he probably wasn't in a much better condition, but didn't really care.

"Maybe you can get Professor Snape to give you that arse-kicking he's been dying to give you since first year. That way, you'll feel more at home," Nott spat furiously.

Harry lunged at him, but was roughly pulled back.

"Nott!" growled an irate Snape as he struggled to keep a hold of Harry. "When school begins again, I will take points and give detention every time you breathe! I will have you expelled if it's the last thing I do!"

Nott just glared at the professor and turned back to Harry.

"You seem to have a thirst for violence, Potter. Maybe you're more like your uncle than you'd like to believe," he said nastily.

Harry froze in horror, letting the words sink in.

"NOTT!" Snape bellowed, whipping out his wand, while keeping a hold on Harry with the other even though the Gryffindor boy was no longer fighting to escape. "Get out of here before I curse you so hard your ancestors will feel it."

"As a professor, you can't threaten me, I'm a student," Nott said superciliously.

"Watch me," Snape said with his best glare.

Nott gulped and immediately ran off with a hysterical Pansy and their two dazed bodyguards.

Snape grabbed Harry's shoulders and turned him around to face him.

Harry looked over at the other teenagers. Apparently, the Weasley parents had finally arrived, because they were now with their kids, fussing over their wounds and listening to their explanations. Laura was with Draco, who looked quite proud of himself.

"Harry, Harry what happened?" Snape asked, trying to hide his concern.

Harry refused to meet his eyes. "Nothing import…"

"Is that Harry Potter?" he heard a voice from behind.

"Merlin's beard it is!" someone else exclaimed, grabbing more people's attention.

Harry's eyes widened in panic. He couldn't help but look back.

A crowd was gathering. There were a bunch of teenage girls that began screaming with glee and pointing. Tourists began pulling out cameras and everyone seemed to be searching for a quill.

"Oh shit," Snape cursed.

Laura ran up and threw her cloak over Harry's head. She pulled him around so hers and Sev's bodies were between him and the crowd.

"Draco, come here!" she yelled. "Quick! Ron, Arthur, you too!"

Harry heard footsteps running up.

"Sev, throw your cloak over Draco, and put yours over Ron, Arthur. No wait, let's swap because mine's slightly different and they saw me put it over Harry."

The cloak was lifted from Harry's head and he momentarily saw Ron before the cloak was thrown over the redhead. Draco already had Snape's cloak over him and the Potions master was looking over his shoulder worriedly.

Harry was plunged into darkness once again as a cloak was put over his head.

"Now they're coming. We've got to scatter and hopefully separate this little mob up. Sev, take Draco to the potions shop, I know the owner has a Floo in the back. I'm going to take Harry to the one in the Leaky Cauldron. Arthur, just take Ron and run. It'll throw them off and they won't know who to follow. Go!" she yelled.

Harry felt her grab his hand and he started running blindly after her as she pulled him along.

"Turning right!" she announced as Harry felt himself being pulled to the right. "Okay, it looks like we've only got a small fraction of them after us. I figured they wouldn't think you'd be coming with me. We've got a few screaming girls who seem to want you to marry them, what looks like a reporter, and a few excited tourists. Left!"

Harry was tugged to the left. He was actually glad for the run. His leftover adrenaline from the fight was being used up and he felt his bad mood lessening as long as he didn't think about the images of his mother that Nott had put in his head…or that last comment of his.

"Harry! Harry is that you?" he heard a slightly out-of-breath voice call from behind.

"Tourist, it looks like," Laura informed him.

"Harry! I love you! Marry me!" a young female voice shouted.

Harry's jaw dropped and Laura burst out laughing.

"Going left!" she called.

"What was the fight about, Harry?" a male voice yelled. Harry assumed that was the reporter.

"Oh Merlin, those teenage girls are really determined. They're closing in," Laura gasped.

Right when Harry was thinking how bizarre it must look for a mob to be chasing after someone with a cloak over their head, Harry felt the cloak being ripped away.

He looked back as he continued to run, seeing some teenage girl right behind him cradling the cloak to her chest. As soon as the girls saw his face, they began screaming wildly and cameras began clicking.

"It's Harry Potter!" they shrieked to everyone around, creating an even larger mob and attracting practically every teenage girl in the vicinity to join the strange little marathon.

"I love you, Harry! We're meant for each other! I never believed that Cho Chang girl! Owl me! Venetia Carter at 1616 Covert Place!"

"Come back Harry! Please!"

"Just one kiss!"

"Just let me touch your hand!"

"Harry, make out with me!"

Harry was sure he even heard one girl sobbing. He looked back in horror at the girl bawling as she raced along with her friends.

"Sorry, can't stop right now," he apologized as he ran. "Please don't cry."

Of course, this only made the girl sob harder. Harry's eyes grew wide.

"He's so sweet!" they all cooed.

"Laura," he said quietly, "they're insane."

"They're just…whew…they're just excited to see a famous…person," she gasped. "That's it. I need to go to the gym. We're almost there, Harry."

They pushed passed some people who were coming through the brick barrier and burst into the Leaky Cauldron. Laura yelled for Tom to throw some Floo powder into the fire. She pulled Harry forward and gave him a small push into the emerald flames.

"Snape Manor!" Harry gasped, just as the small mob burst into the pub.

Harry fell out of the fireplace and somehow landed on his back. He lied there for a second to catch his breath before climbing to his feet. Laura spilled out of the fireplace, tripping over a log. Harry pulled her up.

"Some whacko just asked me if I was your girlfriend," she said incredulously. Harry burst out laughing as the two collapsed on the couch to catch their breath.

"People are weird," Harry panted.

Seconds later, Draco emerged from the fireplace, followed by a harassed-looking Snape.

The blonde grinned at Harry in amusement.

"Oh Harry!" he said, putting on a high-pitched voice. "Marry me, Harry! Let me kiss your wounds! I want you to be the father of my children, Harry!"

"Shut it Draco," Harry said warningly. Draco, of course, paid him no attention.

"Oh Harry, I'm your soul mate! I dream about you day and night! I have your picture blown up above my bed, Harry, and I look at it every night and tell you my deepest, darkest secrets. Oh Harry, I want your hot body," Draco mocked dramatically.

Harry put on a flattered look. "Aw Draco, I never knew you felt that way."

The blonde made a face at him and plopped down on a chair laughing. Snape rolled his eyes.

"Alright, you two, let's go to my lab so I can heal you up," he said.

The two pulled themselves to their feet and followed the potions master, only to collapse back down onto the couch in there.

Snape tried healing Harry first, fixing him up pretty well, but wasn't able to completely heal a cut below his eye.

"That's the best I can do," he said regretfully before moving to his godson.

"Uh uh, Sev," Draco said, shaking his head, "I earned this," he said proudly, pointing to the shallow cut on the side of his forehead. "It felt good to beat the crap out of Crabbe and Goyle and I'm not getting rid of the only evidence of it."

Snape raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"Teenagers," he muttered.

"Professor? You're not going to tell Sirius about what happened, are you?" Harry asked hopefully.

"How else are you going to explain that cut?"

"I'll just tell him a little about the fight, but I was sort of hoping to play it down…a lot. Please?" Harry asked.

Snape sighed. "Fine, I won't tell him. If he asks, I'll just tell him there was a small fight, and won't elaborate."

"Promise?"

"Yes, yes. I promise," he said with a roll of the eyes.

"Thank you so much," Harry said sincerely.

"Yeah, yeah, you two get cleaned up. You look a disgrace."

"No kidding. I hope this doesn't stain," Draco grumbled looking in disgust at the dirt and blood on his clothes.

"You're a real warrior, Draco," Harry said sarcastically, causing Snape to let out a small laugh.

The two boys looked at him in surprise, and for a moment, everything was still.

"Did you just…" Draco started.

"No. Go get cleaned up," Snape said sharply before leaving the room.

Draco and Harry exchanged a look and snickered. ****

.

Back in Diagon Alley, Ron and Mr. Weasley had somehow gotten separated and the mob that had been chasing them finally cornered Ron, ripping the cloak away from the redhead. The adults groaned in disappointment and walked away, but the teenage girls giggled.

"Hi. You're Harry's best friend, aren't you? Ron Weasley?" one girl giggled.

"Er…yeah. Hi," Ron said awkwardly.

"You're kinda cute," a blonde said running a hand through his hair.

"I am?" Ron choked out.

"Oh yeah. I think red hair is very sexy," a brunette cooed.

Ron gulped.

"Umm…well, actually, I have a girlfriend."

"Awww," the girls pouted in disappointment.

"Well, just in case you break up with her, here's my name and address," an pretty Asian girl giggled, pulling out a black marker. The girls pinned his arm to the wall as she wrote her information on his skin with the words "Owl Me, Sexy!" scrawled underneath. The other girls took turns with the marker, while Ron sputtered that he had a girlfriend.

One yanked his shirt up slightly to reveal his stomach, causing Ron to blush crimson.

"Ooh, nice abs," she cooed, writing her information big across his stomach as the others played with his hair and planted kisses on his cheeks and forehead. "You must play sports."

"I-I'm a Keeper on a Quidditch team. Wait, I-I have a girlfriend," he sputtered, half-heartedly trying to wiggle away.

"It's okay, cutie, we know that. We're just introducing ourselves," one with chin-length hair said, tweaking him on the nose with a giggle.

"Oh," Ron got out weakly.

"Alright girls, off my son. That's right, move along," Mr. Weasley said, finally finding his son. He grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him out of the group of girls as they pouted. He stumbled out, lipstick kiss marks all over his cheeks and forehead and girlie writing all over his arms. His clothes and hair were rumpled.

"Bye Ron!" they giggled, waving.

Ron waved back at them weakly, still a bit stunned, as his dad led him away.

"They think I'm cute," Ron said in shock. His dad patted his head fondly and chuckled.

**Wiccan PussyKat: **hahaha, you make me feel so special! LOL, you daydream about my updates?? That's hilarious. (I do the same thing sometimes. Shh!) Lol, looks like you've been being a pretty darn good sleuth! I'll get a bit more into Harry's dreams later, as I've just thought up a scene that has to do with it that I need to add later into the story. Snape's got some issues himself that he needs to deal with if he's going to help Harry. Yeah, unfortunately, the people Harry needs to help him right now all seem to have some issues of their own: Snape, Sirius, even Ron to an extent, though you'll see more of that later. No, I didn't do a court room scene, I just didn't think there would be much I could do to make it original and it would be stepping away from the plot a bit, not that I don't do that occasionally, but that's not the point. Right…even though Petunia and Dudley SUCK, there's not much the courts can do about it, so they'll just have to deal with Petunia finding a job (GASP!) and Dudley not having everything he wants (amazing!) Plus, if Petunia has to work, and Harry's gone, who's going to do the cleaning and cooking? Dudley's going to get to feel how it is to do some work around the house, woo hoo! I didn't forget to update, even though it's been awhile, I know. I've been working on it like a fiend ever since I got home though! I promise!

**ImaginaryFriendless: **Well hopefully this chapter gave you some more insight into why Sirius is acting the way he is. You must remember, as loveable as Sirius is, it's just as you said: nobody's perfect. He has to learn how to do this stuff just like everyone else and he doesn't know the miracle cure. Yeah, Snape's another who's not perfect. He's trying but he's a bit lost as well and needs to learn a lot in order to help Harry. Lol, don't worry, I'll hand out Britishisms to all!

**HarryHeartthrob**: I'm so glad you've decided to review! I really appreciate it. I'm so glad you like the story, and if you enjoy angst, just wait, there's loads ahead. For the H/G pairing, you'll have to wait a bit, but I won't ignore it forever. That's so sad you couldn't stalk me quickly calls body guard to alert him I'm so curious about the 6th book title! I have no clue what it means though. I'll have to do some sleuthing.

**Closetfanficaddict: **thank you so much! Wow, are you serious? You've read Recnac that many times??? Wow. That's definitely an accomplishment. Thank you so much for the ego boost. I really enjoyed it. Lol. I'm glad you like angst because there's plenty in store. Yes, poor Harry and Ginny. I'll get a bit into why they haven't hooked up yet later.

**Beseeched by Locomotives: **well hopefully when this story is complete, you'll like it just as much as Recnac. Maybe it's just because I know what's going to happen, or maybe because I'm excited to be working on it, but I like this one better. Don't worry. I have plenty of Harry bashing in store for you. We're just getting into it. Wow, thank you so much! Lol, I'll tell you a secret: I like H/D as well, much better than H/G. I really wanted to write an H/G fic though, because there are so few good ones out there, and I do like the pairing for canon. shrugs I'm weird like that. Plus, it was my pairing of choice when I started writing this, even though that's changed. I actually wasn't really planning on focusing on their relationship that much, but many begged and I thought of some good scenes and it went from there. Well, you've sort of answered your own question. Harry feels bad about his uncle going to Azkaban because in his mind Harry doesn't feel like his crime's that bad, since the victim was himself. If the victim had been one of his friends, Harry would have killed the man himself, but he just doesn't see it the same way when it's himself that's being hurt. He has major self-worth issues. I'm so glad you like the story and hope you continue to read and review! As for your P.S., those are unfortunately the types of questions I can't answer, but stay tuned and you'll find out for yourself!

**SiriuslyObsessed: **Ah yes, angst. There's a lot of that to come. Well, that's the way these things happen. "The real troubles in your life are things that never crossed your worried mind. The kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday" –Baz Luhrman (I think I got that quote right.) Isn't that how life happens? One second everything's fine and then something unexpected happens and changes everything? The incident with his uncle brought back all those things he's never really dealt with, coupled with all the stress he's been under lately from these mystery headaches and such. Of course I remember you! I've always loved your username.

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Really? Yay! Okay, I really thought the last chapter was sad (I cried when I wrote it), but most people didn't seem to think so. What can I say, I just find emotional turmoil stuff heartbreaking, more so than physical torment. Isn't it so weird how it can become a physical pain when you're sad? Lol, Snape's slowly learning, though he keeps screwing up. Sirius thinks he's doing the right thing, and you're right, he's meant to be a fun uncle. That's all he really wanted to be, I think. I sort of don't think he ever really thought about what would happen if Lily and James DID die when he accepted the role of Harry's godfather. And now he's been thrown into that position of the father figure, and though many people seem to think he'd make an immediate success as a father, I really think he'd be extremely lost. He's still a bachelor at heart and though he's trying to adjust, it's going to take some time. It's not that he doesn't care, he's just so lost about what to do. I'm so glad you're with me on this because you're right, most people are really defensive about him and want me to make him perfect. Right now, Sometimes after a big traumatic event, everything seems a little different somehow, even your home, but you may be right. This idea that there's nowhere that feels like home may be affecting Harry more than it shows right now, so keep an eye out for it later. Angst fest? Definitely. I did get pics of me trying to walk through the barrier, but I'm too computer illiterate to know how to do something like that, or even get it on the computer! No impressionable children around to torment though. Oh well.

**tati1**: lol, you're making me blush and grin stupidly. Yes, poor Harry, he's got issues and is not helping himself get them solved. Umm…actually, I've never thought of it as depression, but I've sort of gone through a phase similar to what Harry's going through, to a lesser degree. I know how it is to tell everyone you're fine when you're really not, and you think you're making it so obvious that you're not okay, but even those closest to you can't see that something's wrong, so you start to think they don't care. And I know what it's like to have your emotional pain manifest into a physical one, like I described when Harry tries to stop his crying. And then one day my mom just said she was worried about me and asked if something was wrong, and I burst into tears. I never told her what was wrong, but it got me out of that little spell. I think I just needed to know somebody cared enough to notice. Before you asked, I never realized how much of that I was putting into this story. Hmm…wow. Lol. But don't worry, I've only been like that once and it didn't last that long and won't be heading back there any time soon. It was just a bad time. I hope you're not going through it. Okay, now that I've depressed you, I really want to see the Stepford Wives! I know, I think that book title's hilarious! 

**Lourdes: **Oh wow! I was right next to where you live!! We actually did just that with the week pass. The tube was great!! The funniest thing was after England lost their big football match (sorry bout that by the way) we were in the tube station and this lady comes on the intercom and says "I hate to inform you, but England has just lost. The fans are coming back from the pubs. I suggest you catch your trains VERY VERY quickly. Thank you." And everyone just looked at each other for a moment, before everyone just tore off running toward the tube trains. It was hilarious!! Unfortunately, Lion King was too expensive to go see, along with Mama Mia, which I really wanted to say. We didn't have time to see the colleges either, unfortunately. I'm in love with London though. I really want to study abroad in my junior year of college, which is two years away! Now, to the review part. Are you sure that's where it's all leading? It might be, but don't be too quick to jump to conclusions. Poor Harry, I'm really putting him through the ringer, aren't I?

**Madame Moony: **I spend a lot of time on the story, actually. You have no idea. I'm a little crazy with it actually, having calendars and such where things are supposed to happen. That's the thing, my schedule hasn't been very flexible lately! I would write in classes and at every moment I could, and I often, though I'm ashamed to say it, skipped homework in order to write, and then scrambled to get my work done during passing periods. Lol. Now that it's summer, hopefully I'll have some more time, even though it hasn't been that way so far. I LOVED the movie. Thought it was the best of them all.

**Savoy Truffle: **In an interview, JK Rowling was asked which character she'd like to spend a day with, and she said she'd take Harry to a nice dinner and apologize for all she's put him through, and all she's about to put him through. I feel the same way. Lol. I don't know, Remus had some weird-ass mustache going on in the movie. Hahaha, Elvis Presley slash Eminem, awesome! Lol, it takes me hours to do review responses, let me tell you.

**Tish: **Lol, I know, but hey, I actually came through with the sequel! I actually try not to promise things I don't intend to keep, which lucky for you means I finish the stories I start! Hypnotism: you are completely aware of what you are doing, but are so relaxed you just don't really care and are more suggestible. I wanted to go to the zoo and do just that, but my friends weren't too keen on the idea. Dan Radcliffe needs acting therapy! He's better, but for Godsakes the boy should not try to cry. Lol, I just made/bought stuff to make a Slytherin school outfit, complete with cape and wand, and hung out with my friend who was Draco and the two of us sneered at all our friends dressing up as Gryffindor or Hufflepuff and challenged them to duels. It was quite fun. Lol, yeah, I always think of funny things from fanfics, but nobody understands. I'm so glad you agree with Harry's superpowers thing! It's a relief I'll tell you. Exactly!! There's no risk, and with no risk, there's no real bravery. Yeah, Sirius isn't really shining now, but you're right, Sev has had his moment of stupidity as well. I think most of the characters will have a moment of stupidity, including Harry, because really, who doesn't have those? Thanks for the awesome review!!

**Jamie** (I'm glad you like my fav stories. Obviously I like them too! Lol), **Leena7** (cowers yes ma'am), **SmellyCat-190**, **HappiGoLucki616**, **hedwigs**-**biggest**-**fan** (I'm so sorry you've missed this update, but no you'll have something to read when you get back! Maybe Sirius is alive! But then again, JK said she cried when she killed him, so that doesn't exactly fit. Hmm… I'm so glad you liked the last chapter though!), **Kiki** (lol, you should always review when in doubt. They do nothing but help me along, and motivate me to write. Thank you so much for all the compliments!! Sirius isn't mean, lol, he's just immature and…well, Remy gives you a good insight. There you go), **lonlyheart**, **kadie**, **war** **mage**, **Catiechan** (I'm so glad you like Sev, even though you are a diehard Sirius fan. Hopefully this chappy gave you a bit of insight into Sirius's actions. For the rest, you'll have to wait and see…), **shadowsfriend**, **Emilie** (I'm glad you like how I'm doing Sirius. I think some want me to make him more of the perfect father, but I really think this is more realistic.), **bright**-**lightning**, **dinahmacabre**, **Lost** **Book**, **Earthmom**, **Soft** **Willow**, **Hp-Azn** (lol, Draco will have a bit of angst in here as well, though definitely not as much as Harry. But there's definitely some thrown in here), **shikatanai** (hey, well if you're a sadistic bitch for reading it, what does that make me for imagining it and writing it in the first place? Lol. Don't worry, I think we can all relate. I'm so glad you like Draco!), **AgnesSophia** (of course, I can't answer your question. You'll just have to read on. But I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter!), **onthesidelines** (lol, thanks! Trust me, I won't be abandoning my fic, since the last part is the best part!), **Dana** (it was my first time out of the country. It was awesome), **PhoenixMarauder** (yeah, Sirius is wrong, but he really thinks he's right. He thinks he's being the good guy, putting his trust in Harry. He just doesn't realize that Harry can't be trusted to look out for his own best interest.), **Helen** (glad you're back), jmerriampaul (always glad to make a reader cry. wink), **NathanPostmark** (wow, thanks!), **GrimmyD**, **littlestomper** (lol, yes, the good old ego's inflated a bit. I love it! Thank you so much!), **SiriusWolf** (I'll have to leave what Vernon sees from the dementors up to your imagination. Harry definitely needs to talk to Sirius about it all, but right now, it's not looking like that's going to happen for a while.), **George** **Ballerina** (Thank you! I'm so glad you like it so far. And it's very good you like sad stuff and angst, because there's a lot of it ahead. Lol, thanks, I would love to be an author.), **Shawn Pickett **(Lol, I love that idea of Vernon being locked up with Cho! Though I honestly think Vernon would have the worse deal), **stahchild, water drifter, mickeymoose, ikke-isso-cute** (can't say, but I'll go more into Harry's dreams later), lmill123 (lol, they just don't know how to handle it. The problem is, what they think is best for Harry might not be. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.), **Mystress Tate** (good explanation), **DreamersDisease** (oh yes, there is a greater conflict that brings about the climax of this story. You guys won't know what hit you…I hope. Lol), **later days, Lorie1101, Siri Kat, A-Brighter-Dawn** (lol yes. Too bad they're all fictional characters or I would have to beat down Ginny and take Harry for myself.), **lyss33** (lol, yes, minor details),** kneh13, Maxwell Coffee House, lilynjamesAAF** (a work of art? Wow thank you!), **Wynjara, Miss Lily Star, torifire126, jilleahblack** (Yeah, Harry's a bit messed up at the moment, lol. The hypnotist who came to my school was female, but I didn't catch her name.), **Nicky15** (I'm so sorry I couldn't get another chapter up before July, but now you'll have plenty to read when you get back!), **lost angel92** (ah, of course, I can't answer your questions. You'll just have to wait and see.), **Crystal113** (yes, well they haven't been having much luck leaving the Muggle police to deal with Vernon. Besides, the wizarding world has a bit of a soft spot for Harry after getting rid of Voldie for good, and sacrificing his life to do so, so they're more than happy to give Vernon a little harsher punishment than he would normally get in Muggle court.), **sou85a** (thanks for the tip. I actually used one in McDonalds for internet access, but I didn't have access to my story so I couldn't update), **fantagal** (poor Sirius. Everyone's so harsh on him. He's trying, he really is. But he's so lost and misguided. He thinks he's doing what's best, but he's obviously got a lot to learn. I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to you. That's really horrible.), **StarWest45, BabyBlu4** (I know! I think maybe the barrier only lets people through on September 1st. I mean, otherwise, it should have worked, right? Unfortunately, the Weasleys wouldn't pick me up in the Ford Anglia for some reason, otherwise, I would've come and given you a lift. Oh well.) **May, Jamie** (Dumbledore's not very involved right now. He's got the Order to deal with and all that stuff. I promise you there is a main conflict in this story, but I can't tell you or it wouldn't be a surprise), **Arctic Wolf, ChildOfDarkness, James Milamber **(wow, you are the master problem solver. There you go. Draco IS good! Lol, yes, Sirius is a bit misguided), **Threetoedsloth, alliohomora** (lol, thank you! Hahaha, yeah, poor Sirius is…well he's a bit lost. And isn't anxious to have anything in the way of serious talks (no pun intended). I'm always happy to ruin other stories for you! Lol, no really, thanks for the awesome compliment), **Angel74** (Yeah, Harry definitely needs to talk about this. But let me take this moment to express how much I'm IN LOVE with your new fic. I am obsessed with it and can't wait for the next chapter!! In the middle of review responses, I got your author alert and had to stop and read the chapter, even if I didn't have time to review yet. Update soon!), **Englishgirl, corinnetkn24, Dea Puella, Always Confused, kjkit, cintishortstop, Nation El-Diablo, yellowpages, ckat44, texasjeanette** (you've definitely pegged that one. Harry always looks for the best in everyone but himself), **Rhyllen, X-Goddess of Imaginary Light-X** (lol, really, you wrote that review at 3am? Would never have guessed…Lol, it was great), **Dana, Myr Halcyon** (lol, Mbop. Well, I did do the YMCA, but you're right. Yours is better. Lol, don't worry, I have fulfilled the mission of scarring the Brits with my HP obsession. It was their own faults really for having HP ads on the side of every bus! I'm glad you're being persuaded toward Slytherin. Snape is proud.) 


	14. Friend or Foe

**Author's Note: **Bonjour all!  I hope everyone's having a good summer so far.  Mine's gone from exciting (London!) to well…not so exciting (writing all the time).  I've been working on this fic practically non-stop since I got back.  Yesterday, on a break from writing, my guy friend and I went climbing through this woodsy hill and on our way back down, it was getting dark, so rocks began to look like crouching humans, and I kept pointing at everything, thinking it was an animal.  But then I stopped and was staring at this dark shape in the middle of the narrow path we were on for the longest time, and it actually _was_ moving!  So my friend, the brave hero, decided it was either a raccoon or a skunk and therefore he wasn't getting near it.  So we threw things to try to scare it, and we made loud noises and tried to look all intimidating, but the thing wouldn't move out of the way!  So we finally decided to make a run for it, and the thing didn't move when we ran right past it.  So now I'm thinking we either literally gave it a heart attack and killed it, or it wasn't alive to begin with and our eyes were playing tricks on us, since it was rather dark.  Knowing me, it was probably a rag hanging from a bush or something that had us there for about half an hour trying to scare it away.  Oh well.  Anyways, on with the fic:

"You're not moving because of me, right?" Harry asked as he helped Kota pack up her things.  It had taken a lot for Harry to force himself to go back to the Stensons' house.  Once he had gotten there, it wasn't so bad, except for when he had risked a venture into the kitchen.  There, seeing the still-broken table and the bureau now empty of china and the glass missing, the memories had come flooding back.  Luckily, Kota spared him his dignity and quickly dragged him up to her room to help her pack.

"Of course it's not because of you," Kota said, reassuringly. "Well, not really, anyway.  We're moving because there are too many bad memories here, first with dad's cancer, then with hearing of your death, and then the thing with Vernon bleeding Dursley.  We don't want to live somewhere where we have memories of you being nearly killed.  We don't want to live anywhere near those idiot Dursleys and we want to live somewhere you feel safe visiting and that doesn't have bad memories for you.  You're practically part of the family, Har, and since you visit so much, we want to have a house you feel comfortable in.  You need to visit more often, by the way."

"But Kota," Harry protested, ignoring her last comment, "I don't want you to have to make such a big move just to make me feel better.  I mean, you still have a year left of school and now you're going to have to make all new friends…"

"Ah, I don't like my friends much anyway," Kota said dismissively.

_Pop._

"You don't like you friends?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

_Pop._

Kota shrugged. "What can I say?  I was the new kid.  Everyone already had their groups of friends so I sort of got stuck with my group.  I didn't have that many options.  Sometimes you just got to deal with people you don't like all that much so you can have people to hang out with and do things with.  Sometimes you have to take what you can get; it's all about compromise.  You're very lucky to have the friends you do.  Speaking of which, are the Weasleys still coming?"

_Pop._

"Yeah, I think they'll be over soon.  You having fun with the bubble wrap?" Harry asked as Kota burst another plastic bubble with a resounding pop.

"What?  It's inexplicably satisfying and you know it.  I've seen you eyeing the bubble wrap longingly," Kota said matter-of-factly. 

Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Admit it, Harry, you want it."  She held up a piece of bubble wrap by two corners and waved it around enticingly.  "Come pop it, Harry, you know you want to."

"Er, have we come in at an awkward time?" a teasing voice came from the doorway.  Harry and Kota looked up to see George, Fred, Ron, Ginny and Hermione watching them with amused expressions from the doorway.

"Nope, this is just another step toward complete self-humiliation for us," Kota said with a blush as the five entered her bedroom. 

"So what exactly is this stuff?" Fred asked as he picked up the bubble wrap.  "Looks like something dad would have a blast with."

An explanation, much wrapping and much popping later, Kota's room was packed up and the seven teens made their way downstairs.  They went into the kitchen to grab some food and Harry couldn't help but to get a bit anxious.  Kota quickly sent them all into the other room with a promise to bring food out to them.  But when they got into the living room, there were already two people in there.

They were four teenage girls, two with bleached blond hair and two brunettes who all looked quite surprised to see them.  Harry looked curiously at two of them; they seemed so familiar. 

"Er, hi," one said, looking like Christmas had come early as she eyed the four boys.  "You must be Kota's friends."

"Yeah, I take it you are as well?" said Fred affably. 

"Yeah, we're her friends from school.  I'm Kristen.  Ashley and I are in Kota's year.  Stacey and Kerry are a year younger," one of the blondes said flirtatiously.

Harry paled, he knew why the other two looked so familiar.  Stacy Green and Kerry Brockford.  He had gone to primary school with them and they had gone to great lengths to make his life miserable.  He hadn't been popular by far, and nobody was really nice to him, but there were certain people who stuck out in his mind as the really horrible ones.  Kerry and Stacy had fit into that category.  He prayed they wouldn't recognize him, but seeing Stacy stare at him in dawning realization, he knew that wouldn't happen.

"No way.  You can't be.  Harry?  Harry Potter?  From primary school?" she asked incredulously. 

"Uh, yeah.  Hi," he said weakly.

"Oh my God," Kerry exclaimed. "Kota said she was friends with you, and I must admit we teased her about it a bit, but…wow, you've certainly grown up," she said, looking him up and down approvingly.  Harry shifted uncomfortably.

"So do you remember us?" Stacy asked.

"Oh yeah, I remember," Harry said, praying they'd go away.

"Wow, we were in practically all your classes since kindergarten, with your cousin Dudley.  That kid was hilarious," Kerry said, reminiscing.

"Oh yeah, hilarious," Harry mumbled sarcastically. 

Kota came through the kitchen door, carefully carrying a tray of drinks.  Her face dropped a noticeable degree before she plastered on a smile.

"Hi Kota," the four chorused.

"Er, hey guys, what are you doing here?" Kota asked anxiously.   Harry suspected she was about as keen on them being there as he was, though judging by her furtive glances between the girls and George, he guessed it was for a different reason.

"We were just hanging out at Kerry's house and we got bored and we remembered you saying you were having some friends over so we decided we'd check it out," Kristen said with a shrug. "Oh, we tried to call you to invite you too but your phone was busy or something."

"Really?  That's strange.  It's been free all day," Kota said in a tone that let them know they had been caught in a lie, but the other girls frankly didn't seem to care.

"Weird," Ashley said dismissively. "So why don't you introduce us to your friends?  Stacy and Kerry already know Harry here, but what about the rest of them?" she asked with an over-friendly smile.

After introduction, the girls began chatting it up with the guys, only acknowledging the girls when necessary to appease the guys.  Hermione looked quite peeved and took to standing very close to Ron, a challenging gleam in her eye.

Ginny was watching Stacy fawn over Harry, looking upset.  She noticed that Harry didn't seem to be taking the bait, but was still worried that the girl would steal him away before she could even have a chance.

"How'd you become friends with Kota?" Harry asked Stacy with genuine curiosity.  He could not understand why in the world Kota could stand to be friends with these girls. 

"Well, she was in a few of Ashley and Kristen's classes and they felt a bit bad for her actually.  She was new and didn't have any friends, but Ashley and Kristen said they saw potential and thought we could make her over and help her fit in with us.  Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to want us to help her.  I think when she moves she's going to end up in a dork group.  She doesn't want to improve her makeup and she won't let us touch her hair.  It's so curly and boring brown.  And," Stacy lowered her voice to a whisper, "we tried to get her to go on a diet, because she obviously needs to lose a few pounds."

"She does not!" Harry said indignantly.  "Thank Mer…God…thank _God_ she didn't let you touch her.  She's perfect as is."

"Just as you're perfect as is," she cooed, running a finger up and down his arm before he pulled it away. 

"Oh really?" Harry asked bitterly. "I thought I was a 'dorky little nobody who might as well do the world a favor and drown myself.'"

"Did I say that?" Stacy asked, not sounding like she cared all that much. "Well, you know how kids are.  I'm sure we all said stuff we didn't mean.  Besides, back then, who would have ever guessed you'd turn out so well?"

"So you decided you'd torture me because you thought I might turn out differently?" Harry asked bitterly.

"Harry, let's not talk about the past, let's talk about now," Stacy said seductively.

"Actually, I'm going to go find Kota."

"Forget Kota right now.  Come on, lover boy," she whispered, hooking her fingers into his pants pockets and pulling him toward the stairs.  "Let's go somewhere a little more private."

Harry shot her a glacial look and pulled her hands from his pockets.

"Sorry, Stacy, but I would rather snog a toilet bowl than you," he spat quietly.

She looked stunned. "What?" she snapped.

"I remember all that stuff you did to me in primary school and you obviously haven't changed one bit," Harry said coldly.

"Obviously, you haven't changed either.  You're still just as pathetic.  Most guys would jump at the chance to snog me.  Did you pay those people to pretend to be your friends?" Stacy asked viciously.

Harry opened his mouth to retort but saw Kota quietly slip upstairs, looking really upset.  He looked over Stacy's shoulder and saw Kristen shamelessly flirting with George, who was being his normal friendly self, appearing that he was flirting back even though Harry knew that wasn't the case.

"You know," Stacy started evilly, "I think the redhead girl, Ginger…"

"Ginny," Harry corrected automatically.

"…fancies you a bit."

Harry blushed and was struck speechless.

"Right, and you fancy her as well, I see.  She'd probably be thrilled to hear all about how you were in primary school and all those amusing tales like Valentine's Day in third year, or how people used to pour pudding in your rucksack.  Or maybe she'd like to hear the little song people used to sing when they followed you home.  I'll just tell her what a general loser you were," she said vindictively. "Maybe she'll realize you still _are_ a loser."

"Don't," Harry said, paling a bit. "Please…"

Stacy just whirled around and walked over to Ginny.  Harry wanted to go after her, but looked over to the stairs and knew there was something more important to do.  He sighed sadly and slipped away up the stairs. 

Harry found Kota in her bedroom, sitting on her bed, which had been stripped of all linens.  She looked up sadly at Harry and suddenly burst out into tears.  Harry hurried over and sat down next to her.

"Kota?  Kota, it's okay," he said in attempt to comfort her.

Kota turned and threw her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder as he forced himself to relax and hug her back.

"I should have known he wouldn't like me.  He's so perfect and funny and gorgeous and sweet and wonderful and I'm just plain, boring Kota Stenson," she cried softly.  "Of course he'd go for Kristen.  She's pretty and skinny as a stick and outgoing and…"

"Shhh.  Kota, listen to me.  George doesn't like that stupid twit.  She's annoying as hell and George would never go for her.  He likes _you_.  You're not plain and boring.  You're loads better than all those stupid girls down there, trust me, I know them," Harry reassured her.

"But she was flirting with him and he was flirting back," Kota protested.

"No, he wasn't" Harry argued. "He was just…"

"I just was trying to be nice to your friends because I thought you'd like that.  I wasn't flirting with her, I promise," George said from the doorway.

Kota and Harry looked up.  Kota's face paled dramatically.

"How long were you standing there?" she asked breathlessly.

George didn't answer.  He just entered the room and grabbed Kota's hand.

"Come on.  Hermione will kill me if I do this without her there to watch," he said with a mischievous grin, leading Kota out the door and motioning for Harry to follow.

When the three were coming downstairs, Harry noticed everyone was now listening to Stacy's stories of him in primary school.  He felt the urge to run back upstairs, but took a deep breath and continued downstairs.  Fred, Ron, Ginny and Hermione did not seem entertained by Stacy's stories, but the girls were giggling despite trying to act sympathetic.

"Oh I remember that!" Kerry interjected with a giggle. "Everyone agreed not to get him a valentine and he only ended up with one from the teacher!  Oh, that was so sad."

"And remember when we did the secret holiday gift exchange and his family wouldn't get him a present to give, so he made a bagged lunch for his person?" Stacy said eagerly.

"Yeah, it was Piers Polkiss and he remember what he did to Harry for getting him that?  Harry ended up with mayonnaise all in his hair and potato chip crumbs stuck in it.  And then didn't they pour paint on him or something?" Kerry asked with a laugh, not bothering with putting up a sympathetic pretense.

"No, that was another time in art.  But, oh it was so sad, at lunch he'd always try to hide behind the dumpster or in the loos.  And then the teachers would find him and drag him out to the playground and he'd just sit there alone the whole time, when he wasn't being beat up by Dudley's gang of course," Stacy said with fake sympathy. "And then once in awhile, someone would pretend to be his friend for a few days and then they'd do the old 'meet me at this spot at lunch' and then not show up.  And Harry would stand there for practically the entire recess not getting that they weren't going to show.  I used to feel so bad for him."

Harry's face reddened in mortification.

Kerry looked over and saw him. "Oh hey, Harry.  We were just talking about you!"

"George!  Where did you pop off to?" Kristen scolded lightly.

"I had to get Kota because there's something I really need to do and it can't wait any longer," he said dramatically. 

Harry noticed Hermione's eyes brighten with excitement.

George subtly took out his wand and turned his back to the Muggles present.  When he turned back around, Harry realized he had conjured up a rose, a rose with a red stem and a green flower.  George looked at it bizarrely.

"Er…okay.  That didn't work quite the way I expected," he said with a shrug. 

The four Muggle girls who weren't aware of what had just happened, just cooed in delight at the bizarre flower.

George approached a perplexed Kota and dropped to one knee. 

"Okay, so I know you like movies and you said you thought some of them were romantic, so I picked one out and Hermione let me use her telefission to watch it over and over until I memorized the part I wanted, so here it goes."  He cleared his throat. "Kota, my love, don't you understand that you're my life?  You are what makes me look forward to the day.  No one can make me laugh as you do and I miss no one as I miss you when we are apart.  We may be part of different worlds but I don't care because you _are_ my world, and if you will be mine, I promise to be yours until the day I die, come what may.  And if the mafia lord discovers us, my people can get us out of Italy and we'll spend our lives on the run, but we'll be together."  He stood up. "Okay, I'm not sure if the last part fits, but I kept it in for good measure.  So, what do you say?  Kota, are you okay?"

Kota was looking a bit teary-eyed but let out a chuckle. "I love that movie," she said with an emotional smile. "And I'd love to run from the mafia with you any day, George, even if the mafia lord was against it."

George grinned and walked over.  He grabbed Kota and pulled her into a dip, much to Kota's surprise as she gripped his neck in panic, and kissed her. 

Hermione, Harry, Fred, Ginny and Ron erupted into applause, though Ron, in particular, was torn between giving congratulations and being disgusted at the public display of affection on his brother's part.  Three of the other Muggle girls clapped as well, though they didn't look as pleased at the turn of events, giving Kristen sympathetic glances, as the blonde just crossed her arms and looked peeved. 

Kerry discretely made her way over to Ron while Hermione was distracted and tried to pull him into a kiss. 

Ron turned his head away in horror as he pushed her off of him.

"What the hell are you doing?" he exclaimed in disgust. "I already told you Hermione's my girlfriend!"

Fred immediately took a step back from Ashley and put a hand up between them as if she might pounce at any minute. "Stay back!  I have a girlfriend as well."

Hermione stepped up beside Ron and gave Kerry a ferocious glare, looking slightly like an animal ready to attack, in Harry's opinion. 

"Don't worry, Hermione," Ginny said, stepping up and giving Kerry a cold look. "Ron only goes for intelligent, beautiful girls.  He's not into the cheap, tarty sort, so these girls really aren't a threat."  She was still bitter about them making fun of Harry.

All four girls' jaws dropped and Harry burst out laughing.

Ashley opened her mouth to scream something, but Kota cut her off. "Get out of my house, guys.  Nobody gives a crap about what you have to say."

The four girls were momentarily stunned before turning around and setting off toward the door in a huff.  As Stacy passed Harry, she whirled around to face him and shoved him in the shoulders, causing him to flinch slightly, but nothing more. 

"You will always be a loser, Harry Potter," she said viciously, before stomping out and slamming the door behind her.

Kota quickly apologized to everyone about her so-called friends.  She swore she had never seen them be that bad before, but she would rather chew off her arm than ever be friends with people like that again.  Ron reassured Hermione, that she was the only one for him, which led to snogging.  George assured Kota that she was better than those other girls, which also led to snogging. 

"So, this situation has quickly turned awkward," Fred mused as they eyed the two snogging pairs warily. 

"You know you're not a loser, Harry," Ginny said seriously. "It's those girls who are the losers.  Merlin's beard, they were horrible."

Harry smiled at her in thanks.

Fred looked between them cautiously.  "Is this going to lead to snogging?  Because if it is, I might as well just go find Angelina and we'll really give Mr. and Mrs. Stenson a surprise when they get home."

Fred was quickly smacked with two throw pillows. 

.

Later that day, Harry and Ron were sitting at the kitchen table at the Lighthouse.  Harry was tutoring Ron in Potions to get him ready for his test that was coming up soon.  The whole time, however, Ron kept looking like he wanted to ask Harry something, but couldn't find the right time to do it.

"Ron, if you're going to ask me something, you can just ask," Harry prompted, setting down the quill he had been using and turning his attention to Ron.

"Okay, I've been thinking, and don't take this the wrong way, but are you absolutely sure you can trust Malfoy?" Ron asked cautiously.

"Ron, seriously, you need to get over this thing you have with Draco," Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious, Harry.  How do you know he isn't working with his father?  He could be spying on you and Snape, leaking information about you and the Order back to his dad.  Maybe _that's_ the reason the Order hasn't been able to find any Death Eaters even when they know they're becoming more organized, because Malfoy's been letting his dad know every time the Order's close!  I mean they have the Order meetings at Snape Manor half the time," Ron ranted.

"Ron.  Draco is not a spy," Harry said firmly.

"How do you know for sure?" Ron insisted. "You've been tricked before.  Quirrel.  Moody.  Maybe Malfoy's like one of them.  It would be perfect for the Death Eaters to have a spy that you trust.  Have you ever thought that maybe he's just putting on this friendly act to get to be your friend?  What if he sort of freaked out in the Great Hall that time and couldn't curse you, but changed his mind afterward and this is his way of trying to get his dad to take him back with the Death Eaters!  I mean, the Order's almost positive Malfoy's dad is the new leader of the Death Eaters, so it would make sense that Malfoy would want back in.  Just by relation, he'd have a ton of power within their ranks…"

"Ron, Draco hates his father.  Just…I can't believe I'm even having this conversation," Harry said exasperatedly. "Look, I just know, okay?  He's not a Death Eater.  I trust him."

"Harry, just promise me you'll be careful around him, okay?  You never know what he's up to," Ron said suspiciously.

"Ron, if you got to know him, you'd realize he's not how he used to be," Harry said for the hundredth time since he had become friends with Draco.

"I'd rather get myself acquainted with a manticore, thank you," Ron said dismissively.

"Let's just get back to getting you into Advanced Potions," said Harry, turning back to the book.  "Okay, so onto properties of common potions ingredients."

"Merlin help me," Ron muttered before turning his attention to Harry.

.

After another hellish nightmare, Harry found himself back in Sirius's room.  As much as he had promised himself he wouldn't keep up this childish habit, it was the only place he could get a decent sleep that wasn't plagued by nightmares, and that promise of rest kept bringing him back night after night.  It was the only place he felt safe. 

He curled up on the floor at the foot of Sirius's bed and sat there shivering and trying to suppress the tears that had been brought on by his latest dream.  It was the worst kind of the ones that had recently plagued him and they made him feel guilty for even thinking such thoughts. 

Harry peered over the foot of the bed and watched Sirius sleep for a few moments, assuring himself of many things he shouldn't have had to assure himself of in the first place. 

His uncle's words had planted thoughts in his head that he couldn't drive away.  A lot of them made sense when Harry thought about them, but the idea of those things made him tense and anxious.  He wanted to postpone that happening as long as possible but didn't know how.  He just wanted everyone to be happy, but couldn't help but feel that everything he did just made things worse.

The worst thought that had been planted in his head, however, had not been put there by his uncle.  It was Nott's words during their fight in Diagon Alley that plagued him the most. 

_Maybe you're more like your uncle than you'd like to believe._

What if Nott was right?  Didn't people always say children turn out like those that raised them?  Hadn't he heard about cycles repeating themselves in these sort of situations? 

But Harry wasn't violent.  He didn't think violent thoughts.  He never wanted to hit anyone or hurt them.

'_But I killed someone.  I killed Voldemort.  I've wanted to punch Dudley before.  I wanted to hurt Sirius before I knew he was innocent.  I wanted to have Wormtail given to the dementors .  I wanted to hurt Nott.  And I _murdered_ Voldemort,_' Harry reminded himself. 

He felt sick.  Maybe he did have a thirst for violence.  Didn't everyone always say he went looking for trouble?  He wasn't even sixteen and he had murdered someone, and even the fact that he was a dark lord bent on destroying everything good about the wizarding world didn't make Harry feel any better. 

What if this was the beginning of it?  What if he hit one of his friends?  What if he hurt Anna?  What if he thought he was fine, and then later in life, when he had kids, it started to come out?  Isn't that what happened with these sorts of situations?  He didn't feel like he'd ever do something like that, but what if nobody really knew until it started happening?

'_If it ever happens, even once, I'll move to a secluded location and not tell anyone where I am.  That way, I can't hurt them_,' he reasoned, and it made him feel slightly better.

Harry willed himself to relax and push away all thoughts of the possibility that he might have a monster inside just waiting to be unleashed.  He lied down in his usual spot and closed his eyes, letting Sirius's presence calm him enough to fall asleep.

.

Sirius groaned as he looked at the clock.  3:15 am.  He miserably swung his legs over the side of his bed and squinted through the darkness to locate the bathroom door as he stumbled sleepily toward it.

Yet halfway there, he noticed something out of place near the foot of his bed.  He grabbed his wand and whispered, "_Lumos_."

Panic gripped him as he saw his godson lying at the foot of his bed, unmoving.

His immediate thought was that Harry had gotten sick of been having one of his headache attacks and had tried to get to him for help but collapsed before reaching him. 

Sirius raced over and knelt by Harry, calling his name anxiously.  He put a hand on the dark-haired boy's shoulder and Harry jerked away with a loud scream, trying to squirm away.

"Harry!" Sirius shouted worriedly. "Harry calm down, it's me.  It's Sirius!"

Harry immediately stilled, breathing erratically.  He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Sirius asked worriedly, turning on the lights in the room with a flick of his wand.  In the light, he quickly examined Harry's face for any signs of a nosebleed.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Harry muttered, not meeting his godfather's eye.  He felt his face flushing with embarrassment, not able to think of a single plausible excuse for being there.

"Then why are you in here at three in the morning?" Sirius asked in genuine confusion.

Harry looked down at the floor in mortification.

"Nothing," he said softly.  He quickly got to his feet.

Sirius suddenly understood.

"Harry, why don't you just spend the rest of the night in here.  My bed is ridiculously huge so you can have a whole half of it to yourself," he offered without trying to sound worried.

"Oh, no.  I'm just going to go back to my room.  I'm sorry if I woke you," Harry apologized embarrassedly as he made his way to the door.

"Come on, Har.  It's impractical for you to go all the way back upstairs at this time of night," Sirius insisted.

"No really, I…er…I just accidentally fell asleep in here.  I…I think I might have been sleepwalking or something," he said, backing through the door.

"Well wait, let me walk with you upstairs," Sirius said, quickly catching up with his godson.

"You don't have to, Sirius, really," Harry insisted.

"Come on, Har, what's better than a mid-night stroll with your favorite godson?" Sirius asked, slinging an arm around Harry's shoulders, feeling Harry immediately tense up.

"I'm your _only_ godson, unless there's something you need to tell me," Harry joked with a weak smile.

"Well actually, I keep the rest of them in the Black House.  Only my favorite gets to come here.  The rest will be used as my private army when I decide to take over the world," Sirius joked.  Harry grinned.

"I knew it."

Too quickly, they arrived at Harry's room.

"Goodnight Siri," Harry said reluctantly as he started to go into his room. 

"Harry," Sirius said earnestly, "you can always wake me at any time and you're always welcome to stay in my room, okay?  For any reason."

Harry looked down at the floor. "Thanks, but really, I'm fine."

"Okay, Harry.  Get some sleep," Sirius said gently.

Harry nodded and softly closed his door, waiting at the other side to hear Sirius walk back downstairs.  When he was sure his godfather was gone, Harry switched on his lights and climbed into bed, grabbing a book off his nightstand and reluctantly welcomed back the sleepless nights.  That was the end of sleeping in Sirius's room for sure.  He couldn't take any more risks like that. 

.

"No way.  Absolutely not.  That thing is dangerous," Draco insisted.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on, you wimp.  Buckbeak's harmless and I'm sick of having to walk out the front door to get to the back yard just so you can avoid his pen.  Just don't insult him," Harry instructed him as he the very hesitant blonde out back.  Harry opened the door to Buckbeak's pen and whistled for the hippogriff to come out. 

"Harry, I don't think this is a good idea," Draco whined as the Buckbeak came out of the pen and tried to stick his beak into Harry's pockets, looking for snacks.  Harry rolled his eyes and pushed the beak away. 

"No, Buckbeak.  Only if you're nice to Draco," Harry said sternly.  The hippogriff caught sight of Draco and squawked at him angrily. 

"I think he remembers me," Draco said, taking a nervous step back. 

Harry gently pulled Buckbeak's beak toward his own face so he was looking into the animal's eyes, stroking his feathers with the other hand.  "Now Buckbeak, Draco's different now.  He likes you and respects you.  He thinks you're very beautiful, don't you Draco?"

 Draco bit back a sarcastic reply after catching sight of Buckbeak's very large talons. "Yes, very pretty.  Very…er…majestic and…noble," he tried uncertainly.

Buckbeak straightened a little, looking flattered and Harry chuckled.  "Okay, now bow, Dray."

"I don't bow to anyone," Draco said proudly. 

"Buckbeak's a bit different than Voldemort and with any luck, he'll be bowing back.  Now just do it before you insult him."

Draco sighed and bowed graciously.

Buckbeak eyed him warily.

"Come on, Buckbeak," Harry urged.  He ran over to where Draco was and stood next to him.  "See, he's a friend."

Buckbeak walked forward and Draco began getting nervous.

"What's it doing?" he asked in a near panic. "Is it attacking?"

"Don't worry, I'm right here and I can control him.  He won't hurt you, I swear," Harry said quietly. "Just keep bowing until he makes up his mind."

"This is so demeaning," Draco grumbled.

Buckbeak nuzzled the side of the blonde's face and Draco shut his eyes tightly.  The hippogriff snorted, lightly spraying Draco.

"Oh disgusting.  That's so disgusting," he whined quietly. Buckbeak squawked indignantly.  "Um, disgusting in a good way!  It's really cool actually!" Draco corrected himself quickly, causing Harry to laugh. 

Buckbeak looked from Draco to Harry and back again before making up his mind, bowing to Draco, who let out a sigh of relief.  Harry tossed the animal an apple, which the hippogriff caught in the air. 

With Harry at his side, Draco eventually got up the nerve to pet Buckbeak, who seemed to actually take quite fondly to the Slytherin. 

Buckbeak quickly became bored of the two and flew off to go find some real dinner.

"Is it really going hunting?  What does it eat?" Draco asked, sounding a bit irked.

"Small animals," Harry responded, "and Slytherins."

The blonde rolled his eyes.

.

Draco shut his window that night, just in case.

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Did the London eye, my two friends are terrified of heights and spent practically the entire time gripping the bench in the middle and claiming they were going to be sick, or that we were going to plunge to the earth and die. I can tell you the other passengers were very thrilled to hear them. Lol, we did all the touristy stuff, including all the stuff you mentioned, but I think my fave part was just hearing people talking and using British lingo.  It got me all giggly, much to my horror. At one point, they had one a soccer match and people were singing in the streets and wearing British flags as capes, that was also a major highlight. Lol. If you really want to hear all about it, you can always email me.    I'm glad you're liking the angst.  I've been told it's all so sudden, but I'm with you. It's a bunch of stuff that's finally caught up with Harry, being triggered by the Vernon incident. Yeah, Harry's definitely not very loud during his nightmares or Sirius would have caught on by now.  I know what you mean, Sirius wouldn't mind if Harry slept in his bed, and if I ever did a scene like that (I'm neither confirming or denying that I will), I know I'll have a bunch of people thinking it's slashy or something.  Anywho, sometimes I listen to that song by Evanescence to get into the right mood to write angsty parts, so maybe there is some psychic connection! Brilliant observation with the parallel, and I may even have something planned with that wink. Sirius has no problem with Draco, only Snape.  Lol, yes, cheese is another main theme of this story, sort of. Lol.  Oh we have string cheese in the States, very cool stuff. Mm plastic indeed, you should see the state of my pens.  Yup, Pansy and Nott are mean.  Meaner than Draco ever was.  Does anyone else realize that Draco makes more fun of Ron in canon that he does of Harry?  And that his insults to Harry are pretty lame and none all that hurtful? I mean, he could be a lot worse, but maybe JK's just toning it down for the kiddies.  Who knows. Lol I'm with you.  If I was there, I'd be leading the fangirls going, "Charge!" and it doesn't even matter which boy I'd catch.  All of them need some good hugging, snogging, etc. Trust me, I've been working like an insane person on this fic ever since I got back.  My mom's starting to make comments that she only sees me when I come down for food.  Hmmm...livejournal blog or whatever that is sounds cool, but I'm completely computer illiterate, and this is probably easier so, I'll go for this right now.  still hasn't responded to me and I emailed them over a week ago.  :(  Some help service they've got going on.  

**Tish: **Yeah, I think that's sort of a big difference between Recnac and Flawed.  With Recnac, Harry sort of knew most of that bad stuff was coming, it was just a question of when.  In Flawed, he's just getting blindsided with all this stuff he didn't really expect. I love quizzes to, and I'd say you're looking into Harry's invisibility superpower answer is very on target.  Good sleuthing!  Yeah, I'm with you, I started out on H/G and have since migrated since, as you wait, they're usually so sappy, or have Harry being an asshole.  That's sort of why I wanted to do an H/G, to finally get one out there without flowers and rainbows or something.  Wow, that sounds intense with what happened with your friend.  I'm so sorry.  But I agree, I think when people are really depressed, they hide it even more than they realize.  To them, it seems like they're making it really obvious, but to others, it's not obvious and hard to see, which can, sadly enough, perpetuate the person's depression even more, feeling that people are choosing not to notice.  I'm so glad you liked Harry's "Fine, how are you?" response.  You've pegged exactly what Harry was doing and all the meaning behind that simple statement. Practically every main character in this story will have their moment of idiocy, but then again, who doesn't.  I know I have...multiple times. Oops?  Okay, the pigtail thing was born from the idiocy of single dads.  Honestly, my dad could not do pigtails for anything when I was little!  Or ponytails!  They'd always end up looking like the biggest disaster.  It was ridiculous, I mean, how hard could it be?  But my friend's dad was even worse, he didn't understand that with hair things, you have to wrap it around more than once, and he kept insisting that my friend's hair ties were too big and wouldn't fit on her hair! Lol. I'm saying nothing about the brooms. whistles innocently you'll just have to see. Jeez, if someone said that about my mother, I'd be on him too.  Who knows, my brother and his friends get into fights over the dumbest things, and Harry had a pretty valid excuse methinks. Thanks for the awesome review.  You really are doing some great sleuthing here, keep it up!

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Ooh, thank you! I'm glad you liked my writing last chapter.  You can never get too into my fic, that's my theory...and also another reason I don't tell people where I live, lol. Yeah, I send telepathic messages to them too, but they just don't listen.  Oh well.  evil grin You got your wish/scene thing, and he's remaining a bit thick-headed still.  Tsk tsk, what are we going to do with him? Go Sev!  Be one with the children!!  Lol, I could totally imagine Snape back in Potions class trying to be all intimidating. "I will have no tomfoolery in this class," and such, but with all Anna's drawings posted on the walls of rainbows and of them all holding hands.  Beautious. That may be working its way into this somehow because it's too fun to pass up.  Yeah, Harry's really taken the Dursleys and used them as an example of what not to be and he's a major sweetie, unfortunately, he can't see that about himself.  Poor kid! I think Cho has retreated into a hole to get over her humiliation from last year. I've read that fic, it's in my favorites. It's definitely fantastic.  Oh I always love influencing impressionable children.  Lol.

**Angel74: **Yeah, Harry seems to be one of the biggest names in the wizarding world, I mean, they don't have movie stars or anything, so I'm thinking their celebrities are hero-types, Quidditch players, and singers.  I'm sort of surprised JK hasn't done more with Harry fans, especially as he gets older.  His dad was very popular from what I gather, so I always figured he was pretty good-looking, and Harry looks just like him.  I'm always hoping she'll do something with that, because I think it would be hilarious, and actually pretty realistic.  People get obsessed over celebrities. I'm so glad you like this fic more than Recnac!  I do too, but I'm always worried people will be disappointed in it and feel like it doesn't live up to Recnac or something.  You're the first to say they like the sequel better, and you've just made me a very happy girl.  Lol, I know.  It's funny how we love each other's fics.  Speaking of which, update!! I'm so in love and so obsessed with your new one and it's barely even begun!

**Myr Halcyon: **Order of reviews means nothing, except that I usually put the longest ones first, so don't feel insulted at all by where your review response happens to turn up. Lol, I'll let you know now that the fish was only a prank by Sirius, but I like the creativity in your sleuthing! The chapter was titled Flawed Perfection because that's when the conversation came up and is one of the themes of the fic. But keep on with the guessing, it actually really helps me to see where my readers are to see if I should add more hints, or if things are getting too obvious, you know what I mean? I gave Harry a hug from you and he says thanks for the love, because I torture him far too much.  Oops?

**Velith: **I'm glad you're feeling some sympathy toward Sirius.  He's really not bad, he just doesn't know what he's doing and is very clueless.  Yeah, it's amazing how different people see the same characters so differently.  That's what makes JK so great.  She doesn't really tell you what to think about each character, she lets you form your own opinions, and people have such drastically different opinions about them. What national holiday?  What nation? Lol.  Hopefully I'm not forgetting some major American holiday, but July 12, doesn't wring any bells.

**Kiki: **yeah, London was really awesome. Yeah, Sirius is definitely clueless. You don't want to torture Harry on purpose? Yeah, me neither looks around and hides story behind back Yeah, things seem a bit boring on the plotline right now, but I guarantee that I am going somewhere with everything and that right now I'm doing a lot of necessary setting up for the climax. I'll try to make it interesting as well. I'm so glad you like it so far!  It makes writing this worth it. Thanks for the awesome review!

**X-Goddess of Imaginary Light-X: **lol, you don't like people beating each other up just like I don't like torturing Harry! Lol.  We just do it out of love...or something. takes a bow why thank you.  I just had to add to Harry's emotional turmoil by making him think he'll end up like his uncle, even though we know he won't because he's such a sweetie, but Harry doesn't know that. I think the fangirl situation made a lot of people forget about the things that were said to Harry during that fight, including the characters that should have thought, uh oh, this is not good for Harry.  Lol, I was happy to give Ron a little bit of attention for once.  Poor kid always gets shunted off into everyone's shadows. I'll have fun with that. grins evilly and begins to type while laughing maniacally

**ThreeToedSloth: **I'm glad you like Anna so much.  She's based on this little boy I babysit. Kids can be so hilarious.  I'm actually horrible at thinking of comebacks, at least in real life.  I can do it on paper, probably because I can work the insults so they can have really good comebacks, but in real life, I just stand there going, "Yeah, well...you're mean!"  It's only later when I think of good ones.  Lol, ditto, I would probably be leading the fangirls sadly enough.

**Padawan Jan-AQ, Crystal113** (lol, yeah, I did try to get through the barrier.  Strangely enough it didn't let me through.  Maybe it only let's you through on September 1st.  That must be it), **Helen, SiriusWolf** (well, as you can see, you predicted Sirius waking up and finding Harry in his room, but of course, that's not the main conflict either.  And of course I can't tell you what the main conflict is either, since that would ruin the surprise.  I can tell you that the next few chapters will have a bunch of setting up for it though.), **Etzgo, Musicstarlover **(lol, I could always picture Harry getting mobbed and am actually surprised she's never gone into the star-struck fan thing.  I mean, Harry's in the news all the time and constantly being heroic, but no crazed fans or reporters? Hmm...), **Marci018 **(lol, thanks!  I'm so glad you like it.  Yeah, Harry's having a lot to deal with right now, but I can't exactly tell you whether that'll get better or worse.  Just be prepared for some upcoming angst, that's all I can say), **AgnesSophia **(I'm so glad you like it, and am so excited you like my Harry/Draco friendship!  I think they're similar in many ways, they could be good friends if they wanted), **Shawn Pickett **(Thanks!  I must admit that the Diagon Alley scene was one of my favorites to write, so I'm really glad you liked it.), **Catiechan, blulily07 **(lol, I love the sleuthing you've got going on here, and it's a good theory, but of course, I can't possibly answer your question without giving parts of my story away and that's not going to happen.  But I definitely like how you're trying to figure out and I always enjoy hearing people's guesses.  Keep it up!), **MissLilyStar **(Snape even disturbs himself when he laughs, lol.  Of course Harry needs someone to get him to talk, but unfortunately, nobody really knows that.  Nobody knows what to do so they're each doing what they think is best.  Le sigh.), **EriEka127, Kneh13, Arctic Wolf2 **(well, _we_ know Harry needs someone to force him to talk, but Sirius doesn't.  In some situations, maybe it would be good to let Harry come to him, but that's not the case here.  Sirius just doesn't get it.  If you'd like to beat some sense into him, be my guest, though I think you'll just confuse him more. Lol), **Earthmom **(lol, yeah, well you can put a lot into a 16 page chapter, which was the length of the last one.  Of course, this one's toned down a bit, because last one was my gift to you guys for going so long without updating), **Zaptor, holly, M0rbidity, NathanPostmark, Girwhoshowspigs **(well thank you so much for picking me to review to!!  I'm glad you liked last chapter), **tati1 **(wow, you had it for a long time.  I'm glad you're over it now and I really hope you don't slip back into it.  Yeah, I saw Stepford Wives, I love when they sneak into the house.  The gay guy's hilarious!  I hope you liked the chapter when you got around to reading it and you seriously printed out Recnac?  Even _I _haven't printed it out.  Thanks!), **closetfanficaddict **(mmm, that virtual chocolate rocked!), **lilynjamesAAF, Mayhem El-Diablo, Idhren** (I'm so happy to make you laugh! Thanks for popping in a review! Shh, I'm a review addict. I'm so glad you like how I portray the characters.  Thank you so much for all the praise and I absolutely loved your review.  I hope you continued to enjoy!), **Mandi2008 **(nah, we're going to spare Ron from thinking the girls only liked him because of his association with Harry. He deserves a nice confidence boost), **shadowarwen, lindsay **(sure! I've added you to my email list), **heretic angel, Hp-Azn, gina87, Harryandginnyforever, Nation El-Diablo **(yeah, Eloise and Neville will pop up a few more times in the story.  No, this fic takes place entirely during the summer.  Hmm, no moose or penguins, though I definitely saw a rabid vole around here somewhere.), **torifire126 **(tell me about it.  Boys...sheesh), **Savoy Truffle **(I'm so glad you like! I love Remy as well, though I have to shunt him away for a lot of the fic because he'd help things too much before all the angst could set in!  Plus, I don't want him taking the place of Sirius as Harry's father figure. But he will keep coming in and being the voice of reason. Oh, Beatles rock.  Actually, I'm listening to them right now!), **James Milamber, Arsenal, shadowsfriend **(well, you've got your wish for Harry to be found by Sirius, and Harry's headache will come back into play in a bit. How soon is still up in the air, since I have a scene that I'm not sure if I'll leave in since I really need to move this fic along.  But it _would _be a fun scene, but it could be a bit redundant.  Hmm...I don't know.  I'll debate it with myself), **Shadow Wolf2418 **(you know, more than one person mentioned the Rudolf video, but I've never seen it! Maybe I'll go rent it...maybe not, lol, I'll just take everyone's word for it. Poor Harry, he doesn't understand the minds or rabid fangirls.  The poor poor fool), **Dana a.k.a. Mystic Phoenix **(I'm glad you're sympathizing with Sirius a bit.  I think some are being a bit harsh on him for his cluelessness, but he's trying.  No!  Sev didn't say Harry was like his uncle!  He would never say that.  Nott said that.  I would see how that would be very confusing if you thought Sev said it, but Sev actually flips out when Nott says that), **Phoenixmarauder **(thank you so much, especially for the comment about my OCs. I'm always nervous about them.), **PassionFlower **(HAHAHAHA.  Lol, wow, I'm with you girl.  I'd completely be leading the rabid fangirls.  I'd love to make Harry my sex-kitten. Great way to make money yes, but I think I'd rather keep them to myself, less police that way.  Your review had me on the floor laughing.  Absolutely brilliant.  Oh and I've read the Naked Quidditch match thing before. Hilarious! My fave part is "Hermione took her down to the Infirmary. She was foaming at the mouth and wouldn't let go of a printout of that Mmail and a measuring tape!" hahaha), **GrimmyD, Lourdes1 **(Hopefully I'll be able to go back to London to study and be able to use all your wonderful advice.  I'm glad you like the fic!), **Sailor C **(I want to do the same thing. London's definitely expensive, but if you're willing to cut down on meals and eat cheaply, it's not that bad.  You just have to stuff yourself at each meal so you don't get hungry again.  But England's worth it.  I'd definitely love to visit Scotland and Ireland as well. One day...)**, Lorie1101 **(if only I could be witty in real life.  I'm actually horrible at thinking of comebacks on the spot. Oh well, I can live through my writing lol.), **DreamersDisease, Athenakitty **(if the twins got pictures of Ron at the end of the last chapter, hopefully 'Mione will never find them. Well, Vernon's in wizard prison and Petunia will have to get a job to support the family, which means Dudley's going to have to start doing chores.  They're being punished, even if most of us would like to seem them punished more harshly.  C'est la vie), **Madame Moony **(yeah! Calendars help so much! It helps me keep organized and figure out what needs to go before what and such. I need to write everything down. Getting to sleep's a big task because I always think of ideas right when I'm about to fall asleep and have to get up and jot down notes so I don't forget it.  Lol, yes, it has to be h/g, sorry!), **wynjara, Siri Kat, texasjeanette **(always glad to make my story painful to read wink lol.)**, corrinetkn24**


	15. A Bad Idea

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone. I've got a nice long chapter here for all of you, but this length is _unusual_, not the norm. Got it? Good. Yesterday my friends and I went down to the beach and one of my friends tried to teach the rest of us how to skim board. He made it look so easy, just sort of gliding away into the horizon, and the rest of us kept trying to run onto the damn boards and either nose diving into the shallow water, or falling flat on our bums. I don't know how I managed it, but I'm sore in many muscles I didn't know existed. It was fun, but it was freezing, and we ended up all lying in this very shallow stream of warm fresh water for a long time, trying to get warm, since the ocean felt like frozen ice cubes. And just when we were about to go dry off, since I had started turning blue, a huge wave came and wiped out all our stuff. Towels and clothes: soaked. But it was great anyways. Well, anyways, here's the chapter. Hope you enjoy!

"Harry! Harry!" Eloise called excitedly as she raced into the Lighthouse's kitchen, brushing soot off her shoulder as she ran. Neville followed behind looking very entertained.

Harry grinned. He liked hanging around Neville and Eloise since they seemed to be the only people he knew who didn't know about the incident with his uncle or that he had been abused. It was refreshing to know for sure that they didn't come to see him out of pity.

Eloise slammed a magazine down on the table in front of Harry and the raven-haired boy paled slightly.

"Oh no, what are they saying now," he groaned. "It's not the Cho thing again, is it?"

"Nope," Eloise said happily as she flipped to a page near the center.

"The Year's Fifty Hottest Wizards," Harry read the title of the article and scanned some of the names listed before turning to Eloise. "Um, no offense, Eloise, but I'm not really interested in who's the hottest wizarding celebrity according to _Teen Witch_."

"You will be when you find out who got number one," Neville said with a knowing grin.

"Victor Krum?" Harry guessed, thinking of the only young celebrity he knew.

"No way, not even on the list," Eloise said dismissively with a hint of pride to her voice. "This list is only the cream of the crop."

Or maybe it was someone Eloise would be interested in. "Um, that guy you like from that band? Er…Ken…Kevin…"

"Kyle Coolson? Nope, though he is dead sexy…" she caught sight of Neville's raised eyebrow, "...not as sexy as you, Neville, obviously." Neville blushed and shook his head with a chuckle. Eloise continued. "And the winner is…"

Eloise flipped the page and Harry's jaw dropped.

It was a large picture of himself at the Three Broomsticks, looking off the page at who he presumed were his friends. He remembered the day. Ron and Hermione had been joking around and teasing him about his crush on Ginny. His picture self was blushing and chuckling softly. He looked down at his drink and ran a hand through his hair, revealing his scar before looking back up to where Ron and Hermione would have been if the picture had been larger.

Eloise and Neville both laughed excitedly and quickly slid into chairs on either side of their shocked friend.

Harry quickly looked at some of the other pictures. He groaned in mortification as he saw one of him without his shirt from the day he had been running from reporters in Hogsmeade. There were a few small ones of him walking around with his friends in Hogsmeade at different times of the year, one in the snow, one where it was raining, and one with he, Fred and George after he had found haven in their joke shop from the rabid reporters. There was a picture from the press thing for the tri-wizard tournament, and a couple from the tournament itself, one of him on a broom flying around the dragon, finally sweeping the egg out from under it and flying out over the audience, and another of him pulling Ron and Fleur's little sister out of the Great Lake, shirt clinging to his chest. He definitely looked younger in those three.

"Oh no," Harry said weakly. "I look like a complete ponce. I look…"

"You look good, Harry, don't worry," Eloise assured him, patting his arm. "They do a whole article on the winning wizard. Listen to this:

"_In choosing our hottest wizard of all, there was obviously some tough competition. But _Teen Witch_ takes more into consideration than just looks, though our winner definitely has those as well. Harry Potter has been known throughout the wizarding world sinc_e…I'll skip the life story since you already know it. It talks about your two defeats of You-Know-Who and all the stuff you've done at school. Okay…_There's no question that Harry's got the makings of a hero: bravery, selflessness, and the resilience to stand up to all the criticism he's gotten in the last few years. But what makes Harry really special is the part of him the public doesn't always see. We've had our undercover reporters, disguised as regular teenagers, talk to several of his peers from his school, Hogwarts, on one of the school's outings to Hogsmeade Village to find the truth about the boy behind the scar and the results were quite interesting. _

_"'Harry's different than other celebrities, I guess,' one Justin Finch-Fletchly revealed. 'He's really nice and he genuinely doesn't get into the whole celebrity thing. Back in our second year, I accused him of some pretty horrible things, since I really thought he was doing them at the time, but he immediately forgave me after the whole mess was over. Definitely a good bloke.'_

_"'Harry? Oh Harry's great! He's my hero,' confided one Charles Crabbe, a second year at the time of this interview. 'He saved me from some bullies from his own house, I'm in his rival house, and that's practically unheard of in our school. Actually, from what some of my friends have told me, it seems that he really tries to help a lot of the younger students from our house, Slytherin that is, even if a lot of the upper classmen are mean to him. Plus he's always telling me to be myself and never tried to turn me against my older brother, who's quite mean to him. He makes me and some of my classmates want to change and try to overcome this stupid house rivalry we've got going on.'_

_"'Harry Potter? Oh, he's dead sexy,' agreed a group of girls whose names will be concealed to protect their dignity. 'No really, he's what you would call a sex god if he wasn't so innocent. I think practically every girl I know would love to be his first girlfriend, or his first kiss, or his first anything really. We tried sneaking into the Gryffindor changing rooms one time after Quidditch practice to watch him change and hopefully shower, but he caught us. He didn't even get it that we were there to watch him and was actually concerned that we had gotten locked in the towel closet, which just happened to have had a few holes punched through it.'"_

"What?!" Harry interrupted. "They said they had accidentally gotten locked in!"

Eloise and Neville looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"A whole group of young teenage girls happened to get locked in the small towel closet, because what, they decided to all take a walk into it?" Eloise asked sarcastically.

"What did they say the holes were for?" Neville asked curiously.

"Um, so they could call for help. They said they were just about to call out when I came over," Harry said thinking back. "Huh. I always wondered why they had waited so long. I mean I had already taken off my shirt and everything."

"Hey, Har, you know they took the word gullible out of the dictionary."

"Really? Why…oh shut it, Neville," Harry grumbled.

"Alright," Eloise said, "Back to the entertainment:

"_'Oh no, another crazed fan girl after Harry?' laughed the captain of Harry's Quidditch team, Angelina Johnson. 'Harry's a big sweetie. I've never met anyone so down-to-earth and I don't just mean for a celebrity. He's loyal like you wouldn't believe, and he'd do anything for his friends. My boyfriend, Fred Weasley, his family's really close with Harry, and trust me, that boy would do anything for any of them, and Fred and George both adore him. Anyway, you just leave him alone because Merlin knows how shy he is about all this fame stuff. He just wants to be a normal teenager and hang out with his friends.'_

_"'Harry's best friends are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, everyone knows that, but I also see him around with Neville Longbottom and Eloise Midgeon, she's from my house,' said Leena Sine, a fourth year at the time. 'Oh, he's also around Ginny Weasley a lot; she's in my year. Everyone thinks they might get together. Um, you want more? Let's see. A lot of girls fancy him, because, well, obviously he's really cute, but it's in that sort of way where he doesn't know he's cute, and he can't see that everyone's wild about him.'_

_"All of these comments were made before Harry had defeated He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named for good, so we can be assured that people were not just saying these things in gratitude. Brave, down-to-earth, and obviously gorgeous, its no wonder everyone's crazy about Harry Potter. _

_"When the news of the recent fall of You-Know-Who hit the wizarding world, the first reaction of the public was to celebrate, but then, we got the news of the death of Harry. He sacrificed himself for us all, when during his life, the public had not necessarily treated him kindly. Then, it was revealed that Harry had been diagnosed with a Muggle illness several months before and had been keeping the fact that he was dying from all but his very closest friends and professors, since he didn't want anyone to treat him differently. _

_"His miraculous revival brought joy back to the wizarding world, and we at _Teen Witch_ recognize this as a second chance for not only Harry. It is a chance for the wizarding world to realize that Harry's more than just the boy who lived, a hero even without the scar. _

_"Of course the biggest question for the millions of witches who would love to, as one our interviewees said it, 'be his first anything,' is if our Harry is attached at this point in time. Through our thorough research, we believe that he is indeed single, and that the rumors of him having dated Hermione Granger and Cho Chang are both false. We all know he's a catch; now, it's time to see who can capture the heart of this sexy wizard teen,"_ Eloise finally finished, quickly adding, "_turn to page 76 for lightning bolt shaped stickers and fake tattoos." _

"This is beyond humiliating," Harry groaned. "Don't they have to ask permission to do something like this? They obviously only picked me because I beat Voldemort. What if people think I asked them to do this or that I let them take those pictures?"

"Don't worry, mate, I'm sure nobody reads this magazine," Neville said comfortingly.

Eloise laughed. "Are you kidding? _Teen Witch_ is the most largely distributed teen magazine of all. So, Harry, those are some pretty good-looking pictures. Do you think Ginny subscribes to Teen Witch?" Eloise asked suggestively.

Harry paled. "Oh my God. I think she does. We have to get that magazine from her before she reads it! Or any of the Weasleys for that matter. I'd never live it down!"

"No way! Let Ginny read it! She'll love it!" Eloise insisted.

"Ha! I don't think so. It's only eight thirty. They're going to eat breakfast any minute now and then they'll open their mail. I've got to get it before they read it, and don't you dare tell them anything about it, Eloise," Harry said, getting up and hurrying to the fireplace.

"I don't think so, Harry. You're not taking that magazine from Ginny," Eloise said firmly.

"Come on, Eloise, he's embarrassed about it," Neville argued. "Merlin knows I would be too if they plastered shirtless pictures of me in a magazine."

"I wouldn't mind shirtless pictures of you, Nev," Eloise said just to see the blush spread across Neville's face.

While the two were occupied, Harry threw some floo powder into the fireplace and quickly flooed to the Lighthouse. He ran into the kitchen where the Weasleys were just sitting down, the pile of mail on the table. The family looked up in surprise.

"Hey, Har, what's up? Is something going on?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Um, nothing really, I um…was just wondering if you got something that I sent you," Harry improvised. "Can I just look through because I wasn't supposed to send it and I don't want you to see it?"

The Weasleys looked at him strangely. Ron handed him the stack and Harry turned his back toward the table, shifting through the few magazines before finding the _Teen Witch_.

"Don't let him get the…" Eloise yelled, bursting into the kitchen with Neville right behind her, but was cut off when Neville clamped a hand over her mouth.

Harry grabbed the magazine and hid it under his shirt so they couldn't see which one as he thrust the pile of mail back into a very confused Ron's hands.

"Got it! Thanks!" he announced and whirled around to run out of the kitchen.

"OW!" exclaimed Neville, examining his hand. "Eloise, you bit me!"

"Sorry, had to be done," she said, jumping in front of the door.

"Harry," Eloise said warningly, "if you don't hand it back right now, it may result in bodily harm to you."

The Weasleys all looked around anxiously at how Harry would handle being physically threatened. Luckily Harry didn't see their looks and just laughed.

"Watch out, Harry. She bites," Neville warned, holding up his reddened hand.

"What did you take, Harry?" Ron asked curiously. He got up and started over and Harry watched him approach, backing up toward Eloise.

"Nothing important. Eloise is just being annoying," Harry said, ignoring Eloise's indignant "hey!"

"Trust me, you guys want to see what Harry took," Eloise said to the Weasleys, looking directly at Ginny while she said it.

"Eloise!" Harry cried indignantly. "That's it. No Christmas presents for you ever again."

"Empty threat," Eloise challenged.

"What is it, Eloise?" Ginny asked curiously.

Eloise opened her mouth to respond but Harry clamped a hand over her mouth.

"It's nothing, really," Harry assured them, but everyone was beyond believing anything he said now. The four Weasley kids had all gotten up now and had started coming for him.

He tried getting out of the door, but Eloise was firmly blocking it. Neville dodged her and got into the living room. He motioned for Harry to give it to him. Harry quickly slipped him the magazine and Neville took off running.

"Go, Neville!" Harry called happily as the boy flooed away.

"What was it, Eloise?" Fred asked.

"Eloise, if you don't say anything, I'll try to convince Neville to go to your parents' party with you," Harry said frantically.

"He refuses. He's too afraid he'll mess it up or break something, even though I told him it didn't matter."

"I can convince him. Come on, Eloise," Harry pleaded.

"Bribery, Harry?" Eloise asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry nodded.

"You've got yourself a deal. I won't say a word," Eloise promised. The Weasleys all groaned in disappointment.

Harry and Eloise said their goodbyes, ignoring the pleas for them to tell what Harry had taken from their mail.

Just before they were about to floo away, Eloise caught Ginny's eye and gave her a significant look. She pulled her own copy of _Teen Witch_ out just enough so the title was showing before putting it away again. Eloise put her fingers to her lips for just a second before pretending to wipe something off her face as Harry looked over at her.

After the breakfast was over, Ginny's first order of business was to owl her friends, begging for a copy of her missing magazine.

When she got a copy later on, she and her brothers all curled up on her bed and found the article. The boys all got a good laugh.

"You can stop drooling now, Ginny," Ron teased and was immediately smacked with a pillow.

"Don't you love how they make a big deal of realizing there's a person behind the scar and then give lightning bolt tattoos and stickers?" Ginny said sarcastically. "I'm glad they're really getting their message across."

"Only Harry would try to hide this," George said with a chuckle.

"Any other guy would be handing out copies like party favors," Fred added.

"Well, I'm glad they chose Harry," Ginny commented. "He could use the confidence boost."

"You're just glad they chose Harry so you can blow up those pictures and hang them on your wall," Ron said with a snort.

Ginny glared at him. "Nooo…I'm not _that _pathetic," she said indignantly.

Her brothers looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"I'll keep them under my pillow. Too good of a chance he'd see them otherwise," she said with a grin.

"That's our girl!" Fred exclaimed cheerily, clapping her on the back.

…

Harry was laying at the edge of the swimming hole near the Lighthouse. His legs were dangling into the water from his knee down and he was holding one of Kota's Muggle books up above his face. Occasionally the big fish in the pond went by and nudged his foot, giving Harry the creeps. Sirius finally admitted to putting it in there as a prank, but couldn't seem to be able to catch it in order to turn it back into the frog it had originally been. Harry thought the frog might actually enjoy life better as a fish.

Suddenly, something above him was blocking his light. Harry moved his book and started with a gasp as someone's face was looking back down at him.

"Merlin, Fred, you nearly gave me a heart attack," Harry said, sitting up. "What are you doing here?"

Fred took off his shoes and sat next to Harry, sliding his own legs into the cool water.

"You know, Harry, the funniest thing happened this morning. Ron got a letter from Angelina naming him Quidditch captain. Now, of course, our little brother is torn between being insanely excited and being confused as to why he got it and not you. He's too nervous to tell you right now. But as Angelina is my wonderful, beautiful girlfriend, we have a very open relationship and she tells me many, many things. And the funny thing is that last week she told me she sent you a letter naming _you_ captain. And when I asked her about this sudden change of plans, all she told me is that you and her had a conversation and she changed her mind. Would you care to explain this to me, Harry my friend?"

Harry shrugged. "Ron would make a much better captain than me. He's a strategic thinker, whereas I rarely plan out anything. Plus, he's more of an in-the-game player, since Seekers are always off looking for the snitch, so he'll know what we need to improve on best and he'll be able to notice where our strong and weak points are."

"That's pretty much what the letter said, but why do I get the feeling that there's something more to this?" Fred asked wisely.

"Because you're crazy?" Harry suggested jokingly.

"True enough, Harry my boy, but I will not be fooled. Seriously, Harry, why'd you have Angelina hand over captaincy to Ron. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell him," Fred promised.

Harry sighed. "It would mean so much more to Ron to be Quidditch captain. It's something he really wants, though he'd never say it," he admitted.

"Harry, you deserve this. You've been on the team since first year! I know you want it too and you were the best flyer on the team," Fred insisted.

"Fred, you don't understand."

"Well, then you're the bloke to explain it to me. I swear, anything you tell me will be purely confidential. Ron will never know, or any other Weasley, except for maybe George, but that's only because he has this creepy way of knowing when I know something and it's impossible to keep a secret from him. It's a twin thing."

Harry sighed. "You promise not to tell Ron, or be obvious about what I'm going to tell you?"

"I swear it on the joke shop," Fred vowed.

"Okay. Look, Ron always sees himself as the unimportant Weasley. Bill, Charlie, and Percy were all Quidditch captains or Head Boys, and you and George are the outgoing pranksters who everyone loves. Ginny's the girl, so she stands out as well, but Ron feels like he has all this to live up to and if he doesn't live up to it, he'll be a disappointment. And then, of course, it doesn't help being friends with me when I get all these stupid press people doing articles about me and I always end up in the spotlight somehow, and Ron's always left in the shadows. No matter how much anyone tries to tell him that he does stand out, he's not going to believe it until he has the title or the award to back it up. Even first year his dream was to be Head Boy and Quidditch captain, so he should have it. And as I already said, I think he'll do a really good job."

Fred looked a bit stunned. "Ron really thinks that?" he asked.

"Yeah, but don't make a big deal out of it or anything. It was one of the first things he said to me on the train and I know him well enough to know it hasn't changed. He'll figure it out though, when he's some brilliant healer," Harry said confidently. "But don't tell him I got it first or anything about what I told you, okay?"

"Yup, this conversation never happened. Gotcha. But Harry, you're a good kid, you know that? I'm glad I picked you out for Ron's friend and Ginny's future husband, oh look, you've even got a sort of Weasley blush there," Fred pointed out.

"Ginny and I…"

"…are just friends," Fred finished for him. "Right." He rolled his eyes and got to his feet.

"Mind if I come back with you to congratulate Ron?" Harry asked.

"Come on, you crazy Seeker," Fred said, giving Harry a hand up. "You know, I don't know why all those Death Eaters want to kill you. I'm rather fond of you, myself."

Harry laughed and the two left the clearing.

…

After Ron had made absolute sure that him being captain was fine with Harry, the redhead jumped around the house waving the letter around and telling Harry how he was going to turn the team into the Chudley Cannons, except that they'd win. He insisted that Harry spend the night at the Burrow, suddenly realizing that Harry had weaseled his way out of staying over for a long time now. But this time, he would take no excuses, since, as Ron insisted, they had to discuss Quidditch strategy into the wee hours of the morning.

Harry knew staying over probably wasn't the best idea, but didn't want to argue with Ron too much. Any scene about it would draw attention to the reason Harry didn't want to sleep over, and that would not be good.

Of course, Ron's plan to stay up all night failed miserably as Ron fell asleep a little after midnight. Harry also found himself also being pulled into sleep's grasp. Ever since he'd been caught in Sirius's room, his godfather had been checking on him about an hour or so after he went to bed to check if he was sleeping. Luckily, the Lighthouse's stairs were creaky enough that he could always hear when Sirius was starting up toward his room, and would just pretend to be asleep long enough so that Sirius could go back to his own room and get some rest. Then, Harry could stay up nearly the whole night reading or working on his homework, occasionally catching an hour or two of sleep when the sun started coming up, using a very quiet alarm clock to make sure he still woke up before Sirius did.

But here, at the Burrow, he couldn't read or work since he couldn't turn on Ron's light without waking the redhead up. Without something to distract him from his exhaustion, Harry couldn't fight his heavy eyelids and soon found himself drifting off.

It was only an hour later that Harry woke in a cold sweat, in result of another nightmare. He anxiously looked over to Ron's bed and was relieved to see that the redhead had not woken.

Harry sighed and put on his glasses. He knew he couldn't go back to sleep and only wished his nightmares had let him sleep just a few hours longer before driving him into consciousness.

He quietly got out of bed and grabbed his borrowed Muggle book from the nightstand and, after a moment of deliberation, quietly made his way down to the bathroom and shut the door behind him. There, after letting his eyes adjust to the lights, Harry sat on the small rug on the floor and leaned against the cabinets. He rubbed his tired eyes, trying to persuade them to stay open. He rested the book on his knees and forced himself to read, replacing the demons in his head with trying to figure out what in the name of Merlin Shakespeare was trying to say, looking between the text on the left pages and the definitions of the old fashioned terms on the right. Kota had insisted that he had to read Hamlet, but Harry was now regretting that he'd listened since Shakespeare obviously wasn't the best choice of a book to keep him awake. He had to keep splashing cold water from the sink onto his face before trying to tackle the next scene.

With a sigh he thought of how, not long ago, he would have been peacefully sleeping at this time. The hands on his watch told him it was nearing three in the morning. It would only be another three or four hours before he'd be sneaking back to Ron's room to keep up the façade that everything was normal, that everything was okay.

.

Ron woke up in the middle of the night with a groan. Half-asleep, he looked at the clock and groaned again. Four in the bloody morning.

He practically fell out of bed and stumbled out of his room, blindly feeling around until his hand hit the stair rail. With a yawn, he made his way down to the bathroom, but when he got there, he realized the door was closed and saw the light shining out from under the crack.

After waiting for a few minutes, he realized there had been no sound coming from inside. Feeling slightly more awake, he stepped close to the door and listened, growing more confused as he heard the turning of a page. Curiously, he opened the door. He was surprised to find Harry sitting on the floor with a book in front of him, looking up at Ron in surprise.

"Harry?" Ron croaked in his sleep-filled voice. "What are you doing? Do you know what time it is?"

Harry quickly got to his feet, avoiding Ron's eyes. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Why are you reading at four in the morning?" Ron insisted.

"I wasn't tired," Harry said simply. Ron looked at his friend, as if seeing him for the first time. Harry looked like hell; Ron couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before. Harry must have been declining gradually so that the changes weren't really noticeable to someone who'd been seeing him almost every day. But, in the bright lighting of the bathroom, Ron could see the dark circles under Harry's eyes. He noticed Harry's hand shaking slightly as it held his book and his other hand weakly grabbing the counter to keep him upright. Harry wasn't just tired, he was about to drop from exhaustion.

Everything suddenly clicked for Ron and he wanted to kick himself for not seeing it before. Harry hadn't been sleeping. That was why he never wanted to spend the night at the Burrow; he didn't want anyone to know. It wasn't hard to guess what was keeping the raven-haired boy up at night.

"Right, well, I'll just go upstairs then," Harry muttered, looking at the stairs reluctantly.

"I'll be up in a sec," Ron said, stepping aside to allow Harry to get by.

When he finally did get back to his room, Harry was lying in Ron's extra bed, facing the window.

"Harry?" Ron asked quietly, as he got back into bed.

There was a pause before Harry answered hesitantly, as if he had been trying to decide whether to pretend he was asleep or not.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay, mate?"

"Of course. I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Nothing to worry about," he said, not looking at Ron since he knew the redhead would easily be able to see passed his lies.

"You think you'll be able to sleep now?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Harry said before turning over toward the window. "G'night."

"Night," Ron said with a frown, wishing Harry was facing him so he'd know if he was actually going to sleep or was staring out the window.

Ron tried to stay awake for a while to try to determine if Harry was just pretending, but accidentally drifted off before he could tell.

…

"Well, though we still can't determine the cause, it's obviously connected with something mental, and no, that doesn't mean you're crazy, Harry," Hr. Callahan said with a warm smile as he, Sirius, and Snape were having their usual brainstorming session after one of his testing appointments. Harry still was holding Kleenex to his nose to catch the excess blood.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked worriedly.

"Otherwise it's too coincidental that ninety percent of the time, Harry has these attacks while in for testing," Hr. Callahan expanded. "Now, I'm not suggesting that the problem itself is a physical manifestation of some mental affliction, merely that it must be influenced by mood or stress or something that would correlate to these visits."

"Plain English please," Sirius requested as he often did. He had long ago given up trying to pretend he understood all the medical speak. He wanted to know what was wrong with his godson, even if that meant letting go of some of his pride. Snape always rolled his eyes, but Hr. Callahan was always happy to oblige.

"I have patients who, as a subconscious urge to seek attention or because they so strongly believe they are sick, often can actually make themselves physically ill. The mind is a very powerful thing. I do not, however, believe this the case with Harry. However, I believe his mind or mood is playing a factor in this somehow, since…"

"Since they're mostly happening during testing, okay, got it," Sirius said with a nod.

"It's not that hard to believe, actually," Hr. Callahan continued. "The pure purpose of these appointments is to deal with the attacks and it's easy for the mind to connect the two and associate them with each other. The more Harry has attacks here, the more he expects he will have them here, and perhaps that's influenced whatever this is. Or, they could be brought on by stress, and Merlin knows these appointments are stressful, right Harry?"

"No kidding," Harry grumbled. Testing appointments meant loads of potions that did nothing but make him feel strange and getting horrible headaches that lasted for various amounts of time and with varying amounts of strength as they tried each new thing. Every time they thought they'd found something to at least make them better, they'd be proven wrong at some point when Harry would be hit with a particularly nasty attack. One had been so bad, his nose began gushing blood and wouldn't stop, causing Hr. Callahan to have to give him an emergency injection of blood replenishing potion.

Testing appointments were nothing short of torture sessions.

"I think it would be wise to test this theory before making any assumptions," Snape said. He always challenged or disagreed with whatever Hr. Callahan said, even when they made perfect sense. Harry suspected Snape missed intimidating his students and was using Callahan to relive his favorite pastime, even though Harry didn't think the healer was very intimidated by Snape. Sometimes Harry found himself just wishing Snape would stop being so difficult so the appointments would be over more quickly, or that Hr. Callahan could just give him whatever potion he wanted to try at the time.

"A break from testing?" Hr. Callahan asked Snape for clarification. "Hmm…that might be a good idea, though I am afraid that it won't solve the problem, that the attacks would just become more random or occur at something else Harry finds stressful. Our problem wouldn't be solved and we would have wasted valuable time in trying to figure out what it is."

"As horrified as I am to say it, Snape's right," Sirius stepped up. He rarely put in his advice, leaving it up to the two with more medical knowledge, so he surprised everyone in taking a stance. "It may not solve the problem, but frankly, we're not getting very far through the testing either. I know we're in new territory and that these things take time, and I'm not saying we should stop testing, because we obviously need to figure out what this is and fix it, but I don't think a week off would hurt anything. Maybe it would give you a chance to go over test results or something, Healer, and Harry needs the break. If having a break lets him spend even one week without these horrible attacks, then it's worth it. And if they continue, well, at least he'll be at home and have a break from the potions and stuff. What do you think, Harry? A week off?"

Harry nodded thankfully, wanting to hug Sirius for letting him have a break.

Hr. Callahan smiled and closed his folder with a snap.

"Well, that settles it then. A week off. I'll review what we've found so far and see what I can come up with. If you need me for any reason, you can always floo in where you normally do and find me in my office. If I'm not there, Betsy at reception can connect you with my home floo. But, since I won't see him for a week, do you two mind if I had a quick word alone with Harry?" Hr. Callahan asked.

The two opened their mouths to protest, but Hr. Callahan stopped them.

"Please. Give me five minutes. You can even take my wand," he said, handing his wand to Sirius.

The two gave in and left the two to speak.

"Sorry, they're a bit paranoid," Harry apologized, tossing the tissues away now that the blood flow had stopped.

"Well, it's understandable. They wouldn't want anything to happen to you and if I've heard the story correctly, your godfather has been betrayed by someone he trusted before."

Harry nodded sadly. Hr. Callahan was, of course, talking about Peter Pettigrew.

"Anyway, as you know, I know pretty much everything about your health, except for these attacks of course, and lately I've been noticing a few things that have me worried," he said with a frown.

"What sort of things?" Harry asked worriedly. His immediate thought was that it had something to do with the cancer coming back.

"I've noticed you've lost a bit of weight and that your blood sugar level's dropped a bit. Also, I can't pretend I don't notice how tired you are, and this exhaustion is not good for your health. It's causing your immune system to become weaker than normal and you're energy sources are being depleted so your body doesn't have the energy it needs right now, especially when you're supposed to be recovering from all you went through last year along with dealing with this new thing. Why haven't you been eating or sleeping?" Hr. Callahan asked with concern. "And there's no need to lie about it, because your health is speaking volumes."

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I…"

"Whatever you say to me will be in held in strictest confidence, Harry. I guarantee it. Healer-patient confidentiality," Callahan assured him.

"I don't know. I just haven't been able to sleep and then I just feel too tired to eat," he said, stretching the truth slightly. He didn't mention the nightmares or the battles to stay awake. He didn't mention the times he'd barely be able to walk from being so tired, or the times he'd fall asleep at the table or on the couch, all for such short periods of time that Sirius had yet to notice anything much. He didn't mention that the thought of eating often appealed to him, but his tiredness wasn't the only thing that would make his stomach turn when actually trying to go through with the task. Often, Sirius would walk into the kitchen and Harry would feel a pang of guilt so intense, he would lose his appetite.

"Would a dreamless sleeping potion help?" Hr. Callahan suggested.

"But Professor Snape said they're highly addictive," Harry said in confusion.

"Professor Snape is right, but some are less so than others, and if I monitor when you take it, and what kind, I think it might help you get back into the habit of sleeping at night. The only thing I'm worried about is that you may become immune to it quickly, especially with all the potions with similar ingredients I'm assuming you took last year with your cancer. But, it's worth a shot."

The healer pulled a few bottles from his cabinet and measured out bits of different ones into tiny vials. With a wave of the wand, they were quickly labeled with a different day of the week.

"Okay, these are all different variations of the same potion, which will make the effect less addictive, and maybe even work a little better. Take the vial that correlates with each night on that night and do not take more than one in one night, even if you aren't feeling any effect with one. If it turns out you're immune to one of them, just continue to take them since one variation might do the trick. If any of them cause any negative side effects, I want you to owl me right away, though I don't expect them to."

"Thank you, sir," Harry said sincerely, taking the small pouch of vials and putting them in his pocket.

"And Harry, I'll leave it up to you whether you tell your godfather about this or not, but if I don't see improvement when you return next week, I'll have no choice but to alert him. Your health is too fragile right now for this," Hr. Callahan said earnestly.

"Okay," Harry said quietly, a little scared. He hoped the potions would work and he'd have to force himself to eat, even if he wasn't hungry. He didn't want Sirius to think he'd been neglecting his health when the man had been so worried over it.

"Have a good break, Harry. I really hope you can have a break from those attacks," the man said with a sympathetic smile.

Harry nodded and left the office, finding Sirius pacing nervously outside while Snape at least looked more dignified, having chosen to sit in a waiting chair.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Sirius, you're so paranoid."

His godfather smiled. "That's my job."

.

When they arrived back at the Lighthouse, somebody was already there.

"Remy?" Harry asked in surprise as he found the werewolf standing in the kitchen. Remus looked over and spotted Harry. His face momentarily flickered in worry before he covered it with a warm smile.

"Come here, kiddo," he said fondly, pulling Harry into a hug.

"But you were going to be gone for three weeks. It hasn't even been two! Why did you cut your holiday short? Is something the matter?" Harry asked in concern.

"No, nothing's wrong. I was just eager to get back," Remus assured him.

Harry suspected there was more to it, but didn't push.

"I told my mum all about you, Har, and she's packed me so full of leftovers to give you, you'll be full for weeks. I've just finished packing them all away," Remus continued.

"You told her about me?" Harry asked in slight bewilderment.

Remus looked at him bizarrely. "Why wouldn't I?"

Harry looked away and shrugged. "So what kind of food did you bring?" he asked, changing the subject.

While Remus showed Harry his mother's dishes, he shot Sirius a look that said they needed to talk.

.

"Why did you really cut your trip short, Moony?" Sirius asked suspiciously when the two of them were sure they were alone.

Remus sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "I was worried about Harry. It was all I could think about while I was there. He didn't look as if he was dealing with the whole thing that well before I leftt. I just had a feeling that I should get back, and my mum finally told me to go and that I she'd see me over Christmas."

"You came back because you didn't think I could take care of Harry myself, didn't you?" Sirius asked with a tinge of anger in his voice. "Because you think I'm irresponsible and that I don't know how to help him, so you wanted to come back and save the day, right? Well, you're wrong! I know what's best for my godson. He just needs some time for everything to get right again, but he's getting there."

"Sirius, have you gotten a good look at Harry lately?" Remus asked in amazement. "He is _not_ doing well! I think he's lost weight and he looks exhausted! He's gotten worse! What did he tell you when you talked to him about the Dursleys?"

Sirius shifted uncomfortably. "The thing about that is…"

"You haven't talked to him about it?" Remus asked incredulously.

Sirius glared indignantly. "He's not ready to talk yet. I've made it clear I'm here when he wants to talk."

"And meanwhile, Harry's going to drive himself into having a mental collapse or get himself sick," Remus argued sternly.

Sirius opened his mouth to retort but they heard Harry flooing back in.

"We'll discuss this after the Order meeting tonight," Remus vowed quietly before putting on a calm expression to greet Harry.

.

That night, Fred and George were going to be busy at the shop and Ron and Ginny opted to go with them. Harry was sent over to Snape Manor to hang out with Draco during the Order meeting, since it wasn't safe for him to be in Hogsmeade without supervision by an adult. The Order was suspecting that as there had been more time since Voldemort's death, the Death Eaters were more likely to have gotten organized by this point.

Most of the time, the meetings were held at Snape Manor, so Snape could make sure Draco was safe, but tonight, they actually had gone somewhere else, though they, as usual, refused to tell the teenagers anything.

Harry was practicing throwing a fencing foil into the air and catching it, while Draco rummaged around through his trunk, as he often did. Draco's trunk held many secret compartments, and the blonde was constantly looking through them, wondering if he happened to have brought a certain possession to Hogwarts the previous school year. Whenever he couldn't find what he was looking for, he got into a really foul mood.

Snape never seemed to get around to asking someone to go get Draco's belongings from Malfoy Manor, though neither of them knew the man's reasons for it, and so Draco often found himself missing his things, bitter because he should just be able to pop over and get them, but wasn't allowed to.

Draco finished going through his trunk for the fifth time and kicked his trunk angrily.

"No luck, I take it?" Harry asked gently, throwing the foil up and missing it on it's way down.

"You're good," Draco said miserably.

"What were you looking for this time?" asked Harry, ignoring Draco's snappish tone.

"The thing I've been looking for most this summer. I keep thinking that maybe I've missed it. I just can't believe I could've forgotten to bring it to Hogwarts!"

"That book your grandma gave you?"

Draco nodded forlornly. "I just wish I had it. She was the only relative I liked and she only gave me the book and a pendant that went with it. I have the pendant, but the book had stuff she _wrote_ in it. It has stuff _I _wrote in it. Merlin, it was practically the only thing that held any sentimental value and it's just laying in my room back home, collecting dust and probably being eaten by rats or something," Draco ranted, pacing back and forth. "I just don't get why I can't leave this house for five minutes and go to get it. I mean, Malfoy Manor is empty! My parents are long gone and the ministry's got that place under tight wraps. It's just ridiculous!"

"Well, how about we go and get it?" Harry suggested after a moment's thought.

Draco looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

"Well, our godfathers aren't going to be back for at least three hours. We could just floo over there, grab your stuff, and floo back. I could bring my invisibility cloak, just in case. We'll be gone fifteen minutes, half an hour max. Nobody will ever know."

"Are you seriously suggesting we directly defy our godfathers' orders?" Draco asked in disbelief.

Harry shrugged. "Well, it's up to you," he said, throwing up the fencing foil and catching it smoothly. "I sneak out at night with my invisibility cloak at Hogwarts all the time, so I guess the idea's not the greatest shock to me."

"This is a bit different than sneaking out of the Gryffindor tower," Draco pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "That's why I'm leaving it up to you. How important is the stuff you want to get?"

"Are you asking if I'm materialistic enough to put us in danger just to get some of my stuff?" he asked indignantly.

"That would be the questions at hand."

Harry looked up in awe at the mansion before him.

"Oh my…" he said quietly.

"Shhh, do you want to get caught?" Draco hissed. He looked quite anxious.

"But there's nobody here," Harry whispered.

"You never know," Draco said ominously. "I can't believe we're doing this."

Since Snape's floo was normally cut off to most places, they had to request an hour-long connection with the guest house of Malfoy Manor, since the actual manor was, itself, guarded against most floo connections.

They quietly walked around to a side door and Draco whispered the password to get in. They stepped inside and Harry took the invisibility cloak off them.

As they walked in, their footsteps echoed loudly. The place was amazing and Harry's eyes bounced around, trying to absorb everything.

"Are you sure this is a _house_?" he asked in awe.

Draco rolled his eyes. "You are so uncivilized." He took hold of Harry's arm and pulled him along. "Come on. My floor is in the South Wing."

"Your _floor_? You have _wings_?" Harry asked incredulously.

They quickly made their way through many great halls and winding passages before arriving at a massive staircase.

Draco hurried up the stairs with Harry close behind. It was clear that Draco was anxious to get this over with and get out of the house as soon as possible. Harry understood completely. If he had been back at _his_ old house he would have been just as eager to get back out.

At the top of the staircase there was a long hall with many doors and large portraits of Draco and his parents, in which nobody was smiling.

"Don't you say a word," Draco warned as Harry eyed one of the paintings. Draco looked up at one of him and his father and involuntarily shuddered. "Let's just do this quickly, all right?"

Harry nodded. "You all right?" he asked softly.

"There's just a lot of bad memories," he answered quietly, not looking at Harry.

They walked along the cold hallway in silence.

"Didn't you get lonely?" Harry asked cautiously. "It seems sort of secluded up here."

"You get used to it," Draco said with a shrug. Harry detected a pained tinge to Draco's voice but decided not to push it.

Draco finally pushed open a door with an elegant silver "D" carved into it. Harry gasped at the sight, causing Draco to grin with the pride he couldn't help but feel for his old room.

It was the largest and most elegant bedroom Harry had ever seen, beyond anything he would have guessed possible for a real room. As Draco ran to his wardrobes and began picking his way through his things and shoving them in the bag they had brought, Harry walked around in awe, trailing his hand along the silk bedcovers and the ivory bedposts. The bed was so tall there were two steps up to it. There was a grand fireplace and fur rugs and throws. A chessboard made of jade and silver was set up in the small sitting area with a couch and two large chairs, each looking like heaven to sit on, just like the bed.

There was a large sword collection in a glass case, along with a bunch of fancy-looking fencing foils.

Draco had so many things, far more than Dudley had at the Dursleys. But unlike Harry's nasty cousin, Draco obviously took great care and pride in his possessions. It gave the room a museum-like quality that made Harry slightly uncomfortable.

"I can't find it!" Draco said desperately. "It's practically the only thing I move around in here and I can't remember where I put it!"

"What does it look like?"

"It has a black, leather cover with a raised silver dragon on it," he explained anxiously. "But the back part's a journal and I've written some personal stuff in there, so if you find it, don't read anything in it, promise? Don't open it."

"Promise," Harry vowed before looking around on shelves and doing a quick search through the drawers. There was a section of the room that was raised with three steps up to it, which Harry found incredibly exciting.

He walked up the stairs to the small area and looked through a desk to no avail. There was a huge display case filled with tons of trophies of all different colors and sizes, including one standing next to the case that was nearly as tall as Harry.

"Merlin, are all these trophies for fencing?" Harry asked as he continued his search.

"Yup," Draco called from inside his closet.

"I never knew you were that good at it," Harry called as he looked through a stack of books.

"Well I am."

"Modest too!" Harry called with a chuckle. He walked back down the stairs and bit his lip thoughtfully. He walked over to the chairs and began looking under the throws and blankets. He threw one off and grinned.

"Found it!" he announced, picking up the journal.

Draco emerged from the closet. As he saw the book, he sighted with relief. Harry gently placed it in the bag and Draco closed the top.

"All right, let's get out of…"

Draco was cut off as voices were heard coming down the hall. The two boys froze. Small explosions got closer and closer.

"You, search that room. You search that one," came a commanding voice they both recognized in horror. It was Lucius Malfoy.

**Wiccan PussyKat: **lol, yes that made sense. Mon amie means "my friend." And Harry definitely does think it's him that made them move, and in a way he's right, but he should take it as a compliment instead of feeling guilty about it, but what can you do with our poor unconfident friend. Lol, I'm glad you despise Kota's ex-friends. Yes, that was a very humiliating experience for Harry, because he really didn't want his friends to know how he was in primary school. Now, unfortunately, he might be even more prone to believing they pity him. Yeah, that part was poorly worded and a few people seemed to think that Ginny and Hermione were laughing at Harry, but NO, they were not at all. Far from it, actually...more like about ready to rip off the Muggle girls' heads with their teeth. Lol, yes, bubble wrap is muchos fun, it's crazy. Lol. Kota's actually not going to be in much more of the fic so you don't have to worry too much about her being insufferably cheerful; she will be, but just off screen so to speak. Sirius figured that Harry was probably down in his room for a nightmare, but didn't realize it had been an ongoing thing and didn't know what to do about it. He's very confused and clueless. I know, don't you love the irony of _Harry_, sweet, innocent, adorable Harry thinking he's going to end up like his bastard uncle? Unless I _am_ planning on having serial killer Harry, which would certainly be a surprise lol. Glad you liked the chapter!

**Tish: **Lol, yes, I sacrifice much of my time toward pleasing you guys, but that's okay, because I happen to love writing. Lol, I live in this weird sort of town, where it's suburbia in small bits of the valleys, and farms and hills and mountains, fields and woods and all the like. And we _do_ have mountain lions. We also have deer and wild turkeys that roam the streets, and there's this small grassy hill near my house that has cows on it that start mooing at dawn and I'm tempted to go make hamburger out of them at those times. I unfortunately know a lot of Stacys. I've always pictured Harry as cute as well. I mean, his dad was the most popular guy in school, so he had to be good looking, and Harry looks a lot like him but with sexy eyes. Yup, another made up movie; I pop 'em out like crazy, lol. Hahaha, yeah, isn't that the funniest mental image of the Stenson parents coming home to several pairs of crazy snogging teens in their living room? I can just imagine them sort of standing there in shock before Mr. Stenson spies Kota and George and exits to go get a shotgun. Ah can't answer any questions of Draco or Sirius or the like. It is possible that Harry would have talked to Sirius if Remus hadn't gotten to him first. Have you ever heard that saying "the road to hell was paved with good intentions." Yeah, that should be the quote of the story. Lol. I'm glad you like Flawed because well, _I_ like it better, probably because I know what's going to happen, and I'm also worried that people will be disappointed with the sequel. I used to love those insanely high ponytails too! They were quite fun. Review responses do take forever, believe me, hours in fact, but I love doing them anyways. I'm weird like that. Lol. Glad you appreciate the effort though!!

**Becky: **lol, I usually only respond to reviews from my latest chapter, but yours made me so happy, I decided to put in a response for you anyways. I'm so glad you liked the Stensons and didn't get the annoying-new-character vibe (I know exactly what you're talking about and tried really hard to keep the Stensons from being that way). I always felt bad for Eloise as well, which is one reason I decided to bring out her character a little more. And Neville's one of my favorite characters of all. I'm with you in rooting for the underdogs. I'm glad you like the fic, despite the ships, but I'm glad you found them to be not so annoying. I'm always glad to make my readers cry, lol. I haven't heard from you about the sequel so I hope you're liking this fic so far. Thank you so much for your wonderful review and I hope you pop one in soon to tell me what you think of Flawed.

**Myr Halcyon: **I like H/G for canon and can't wait for JK to put them together, but I don't really for fics. I think there might have been only once or twice I've come across one that I really like. I started out as and H/G shipper in fanfic reading, but I've sort of lost interest, except for in my own fics, lol. I'm sorry you've experienced what Harry's going through and I'm glad you've gotten through it now. Hey, you never know who you can trust, Anna might be a midget Death Eater in disguise! Lol. Keep on sleuthing! I think I should make a bumper sticker out of that!

**Marci018**: unfortunately, Harry would never ask Sev for a dreamless sleep potion, because he doesn't want anyone to know he's not sleeping. Ron's holding onto a lot of past anger toward Draco, and he doesn't want to believe that he's changed. Plus, in all the encounters he's had with him so far, Draco hasn't really acted very differently toward Ron either. Neither is really putting in the effort and jealousy of each other's friendship with Harry is probably a big factor in it. No, I didn't write Sirius and Remus as a couple in this story. Remus doesn't live with Sirius and Harry. But if you'd like to imagine them as a couple, go right ahead lol.

**Angel74: **Thank you! Lol, they all make sense in my head. Yes I am building up to something, and don't worry, I would be shocked if anyone guessed exactly what it is, even though I'm casually sprinkling bits of clues and building up the foundation for it. I can't answer most of your questions without giving things away. People are slowly starting to realize that Harry's not doing as well as he'd like people to believe, but they're all a bit lost as to what to or if they even should do anything. Btw, loved the last chapter of your fic and can't wait for more!! Oh and I forgot to say in my last review, that I didn't even notice that your title was similar to one of my chapter titles, and no, I don't mind at all. Only occasionally do I think about my chapter titles for more than a fifteen seconds. Update soon!!

**ParanoiaIn2005**: Better late than never! Lol. Why would they be too broke to move? They'll get the money from selling the house they're in and use that to buy a house. A lot of people move to save money by moving to cheaper places, but I reckon they'll be able to move into the same type of house, just using the money they get from this sale. That's what my family's done in the past. Yes, unfortunately, I've sort of turned Kota and Harry into me in that way, because people never fail to walk in on me doing randomly embarrassing things. Me? Like Harry bashing? Never! (well maybe just a little) I'm glad you're seeing Ron's point of view. It takes time to get over past rivalries as strong as theirs. Sirius has a clue to what's going on now, and realized Harry was in his room for nightmares but didn't realize it was an ongoing thing and doesn't really know how to deal with it. He's in a bit of denial. 

****

**Corinnetkn24** (lol, aye aye, captain),** Savoy Truffle** (lol, I love Remy too, along with the Beatles. Nope, no other sequel to this fic, or at least not one of any considerable length, but if I ever get bored, I might do a one shot of the future after this fic, but we'll have to see. LOL, um, no Sirius in the shower scenes, as fun as that would be, lol. Kota's just moving to another suburban town in England.),** Madame Moony** (lol, yeah, that period of half-asleepness is the best for thinking up scenes. I'm sorry you hate H/G so much, but at least I didn't make it too central. Besides, I'm pretty positive JK's going to match up the two in canon. And Ron and Hermione just go together canon-wise. Hope you like it anyways), **tati1** (Lol, I'm glad you liked Ron and the rabid-fan girls and I hoped you liked last chapter! Stepford Wives definitely rocked, but I must say I'm not a fan of anime. Hope you like the chappy), **blulily07** (lol, by the end, I hope to sway you so Flawed is your fave! Muahahaha...right), **lost angel92, Earthmom, sou85a, Lorie1101 **(lol, yes those four girls were sadly based on people I know and maybe sort of used to be friends with is ashamed. Sometimes you get stuck with friends you don't like and it takes you awhile to realize how miserable you are with them, especially since they can often act one way sometimes and another way at others, making the whole thing very confusing.), **Allyrcool** (Well, I'm glad you finally decided to review! Lol, yeah, this story does have quite a lot of reviews, but though it's equal to and may surpass Recnac in length, it's going to be much fewer chapters, so I'll be interested to see which story ends up with more. Lol, Umbridge can't fit into this fic, sorry! Hope you continue to enjoy the story!), **shadowarwen** (here's a little trick that works for me when an author updates but it's not showing up: go to the story and change the last URL number to the chapter that should be showing up and it'll usually take you there. It would definitely have been interesting if I'd let Ginny lay the smack down on the girls, but I restrained myself from adding even more violence to the story lol. Never apologize for long reviews! I love them!),** Etzgo, acciodanrad9** (lol, great username! Hehehe, that's how I feel when I get reviews. It occurred to Sirius that Harry had probably had a nightmare, but you're right: he didn't know what to do about it. Have fun in London! It was so fun when I went and I hope you have an equally great time! I'm glad you like the fic so much! Thanks!),** LibranQueen103, Wynjara, DreamersDisease** (lol, I'm glad you liked the chapter, and it just seemed short in comparison to the whopper I gave you before it. This one's also a bit longer than I'd gone for. Oh well), **LilyandjamesAAF** (I'm glad you think I'm making Harry's feelings realistic! That's one thing I'm really going for with this fic!), **Padawan Jan-AQ, Englishgirl, MissLilyStar** (Oh, Sirius realized that Harry probably had had a nightmare, he just doesn't know how to deal with it. Harry needs someone to reach out to him, because he doesn't know how to ask for help, but Sirius doesn't know how to help him right now), **Phoenixmarauder, Harryandginnyforever** (I do have another fic I'm thinking about doing after this one, after a nice break. I'd love to hear your idea, even though I probably won't end up writing it since I already have too many ideas on the backburner, but I'm curious to hear what it is anyways! But you didn't leave an email address. You should write your fic! Or create a challenge or something!), **Musicstarlover, torifire126, Dea Puella, EriEka127, htbmny, bright-lightning** (Vernon is in Azkaban and will be for a long time. People are not too happy about him hurting the hero of the wizarding world. The rest, I can't answer right now. The girls were based off of people I know, and used to be friends with. Sometimes, you get stuck with horrible friends but nowhere to go if you want to break away, since everyone already has their cliques),** Nation El-Diablo** (you tell those penguins!), **Mayhem El-Diablo** (oh, I didn't realize you two were sisters! Very cool, and keep your sis away from those poor moose when she's driving!), **Lourdes** (The Stensons are moving to another suburban area in England. I'm sure that now that Kota and George are together Kota will be becoming much more familiar with the wizarding world, though there isn't enough time nor room to show it in this fic. The rest I can't answer and you'll just have to stay tuned to find out!), **SillyGillie, gina87, NathanPostmark, athenakitty** (I'm skipping writing about the Stensons' new house, but I'll leave it up to your imagination. Lol, Mr. Weasley would probably be thrilled to come in contact with bubble wrap. Vernon's going to be doing time for a very long time and yes, Petunia and Dudley are going to have to change their lifestyle a lot), **K, Arctic Wolf2, Shadow Wolf2418 **(well, Kota didn't know they tortured Harry and sometimes you get stuck with horrid friends because you have nowhere else to go. No, Hermione and Ginny weren't laughing, when I said "girls" there, I meant the other four. God no, those two didn't find those stories at all humorous. Bad wording on my part.), **Jamie** (I'm glad you like the story so far! I can't really say about Snape and Harry's relationship right now, but if you continue to read on, you'll be able to see for yourself. I'm glad you like Anna! I love her too.), **Shawn Pickett, Thorfinna, azntgr01, Dana a.k.a mysticphoenix** (lol, yeah, I know so many people like Kota's friends, unfortunately. Keep on reading and you'll get your answers!), **Helen** (I'm glad you're able to have a free holiday for the rest of the summer. I'm telling you, the eyes play some funky tricks on you in the woods, lol!) **Charlie Quill** (I'm glad you decided to read my fics, despite the skepticism, and I'm so happy you like them so much. I'm glad you like how I portray the characters and I'm always happy to make a reader cry. Lol. It's not sadism, it just lets me know you got emotionally involved, so woot woot! Hope to bring more tears to you soon! lol.)** TwistingChaos** (I loved your review so much, just so you know! I'm glad you like Flawed so much, because I love it too! Lol. Your wonderful compliments had me celebrating in a mad boogie-down to "It's Raining Men" so thank you! I hope you continue to enjoy it.), **lyss33, SiriusWolf, AgnesSophia, Kfelton, ParrotPerson, Lupin123** (I'm glad you're liking Flawed! Poor Remus thought he was helping Harry by letting him understand that Sirius wasn't uninterested in him, but had problems of his own which kept him from talking to Harry. He never thought Harry would take it in such a wrong way.), **lasuga89** (Lol, yeah, George and Kota finally got together and I'm glad you're happy about it! Can't you just imagine Kota's parents coming home to find their house turned into a teen make out spot? Lol.) 


	16. Breaking Point

**Author's Note: **Okay everyone **semi-important**!! Wiccan PussyKat won some very cool tickets to go to a book fair thing with JK ROWLING!!!!!! AHHHH!!! regains composure So, they're taking audience questions (from a very small audience, I'm so jealous, PK!!!) and so she's trying to think of a good question. So if any of you have a suggestion, pop it in a review!! We're thinking of ones she's actually likely to answer here, rather than, "is Harry going to die in the last book?" Thanks everyone and think hard!! Oh, and thank you so much to NightSpear and Christine for giving me quick Latin lessons in nouns vs. possessives, and thanks to all the others who went to all the trouble to try looking it up online!

The blood drained from Draco's face as he stood frozen like a deer in headlights. Harry grabbed the bag in one hand and Draco's arm in the other and pulled him into the closet. He quietly pulled the door closed behind them just as they heard Draco's bedroom door crash open.

Harry pulled Draco down into the back corner of the closet. He took out his invisibility cloak and draped it over them, making sure it completely covered their sitting forms.

"The treacherous little bastard," Lucius hissed followed by the sound of glass breaking. Harry could hear drawers being thrown open and paper rustled.

"So it's a dragon with ruby eyes?" someone else asked.

"Emerald eyes you imbecile. Check his desk," Lucius's voice barked. Suddenly, the closet door was thrown open. Harry clapped his hand over Draco's mouth before he could yelp. Draco was shaking like mad but Harry didn't know what he could do to calm him down at the moment.

Lucius began throwing things from the shelves, opening every box and dumping out the contents.

"Is this really worth it Lucius?" a voice asked nervously. "The ministry could show up any second, or even worse, the Order!"

"That is the purpose of the distraction we set up over in Little Hangington. The Order will not be here because they are currently busy dealing with Death Eater activity over there," Lucius sneered as if speaking to a bunch of morons.

"There could be trigger-spells to let them know we're here."

"Lucius, maybe we should leave."

"We can't find it."

"Keep looking," Lucius growled. "I want that amulet."

Harry glanced questioningly at Draco who shakily pulled a silver chain out of his shirt. The pendant that hung from the long chain around Draco's neck was a dragon whose emerald eyes seemed to glow slightly. Harry's eyes widened. The two met each other's eyes, each seeing fear in the other's.

"Lucius, are you sure it's here?" a deep voice asked.

"Crabbe, you said your son hasn't seen Draco with it. Draco had no idea what the amulet does and he wasn't overly impressed with the gift so he probably just threw it somewhere with the rest of the gifts he didn't like. He had no appreciation for finery," Lucius said irritably.

He turned toward the two huddled boys and walked up to them. They pulled their legs as close to their bodies as possible and held their breath as the older Malfoy drew closer. Draco grasped Harry's forearm so tightly it was painful. The blond was shaking so hard, Harry was afraid the cloak would fall off.

Lucius stopped mere inches from the boys' feet and began sifting through things on the shelf above them.

Both boys covered their mouths with their sleeves in hopes that the man who was so close to them wouldn't hear their panicked breathing. Harry's heart was pounding so hard, he was almost certain the elder Malfoy would hear.

A box fell off the shelf landing right next to Draco. The blonde boy buried his face into Harry's upper arm in unbridled terror. Harry's hand had gone numb from Draco's vice-like grip, but he hardly noticed.

Lucius slowly reached down to pick it up. Harry pulled Draco's upper body toward him, just as Lucius's hand was about to brush against Draco's elbow. Draco was trembling violently as his father picked up the small box and quickly looked through it.

The man's face contorted with rage and frustration as he hurled the box against the closet wall. It smashed right next to Draco's head, causing the boy to jump and Harry to pull the blond further toward him.

"The little bastard must've taken it," he growled.

Suddenly, a new voice was heard, sounding a bit out of breath.

"They're here! They must've put up alarms or something, but Dumbledore and his people are here!" the voice called frantically.

There were several curses, including several from Lucius.

"Apparate back to headquarters," he ordered reluctantly.

There were several pops from the room as Lucius walked out of the closet.

"Incendio. Incendio," he spat before there was a loud pop announcing his exit.

Harry helped Draco to his feet and swung the bag over his shoulder. They ran out of the closet. In seeing the empty room, Harry ripped off the invisibility cloak.

"Noooo," Draco moaned as the room began filling with smoke. His room was now in pieces and as a last act of revenge by his father, he had set the room on fire. The flames were quickly spreading as Draco watched his room and possessions being devoured by the flames.

Harry looked up to see the fire traveling across the ceiling.

"We need to get out of here!" he coughed, the smoke filling his lungs.

"Oh gods," Draco murmured, frozen in shock as he watched the place he had grown up in being destroyed.

Harry grabbed the Slytherin's arm and pulled him out into the hall where they both gasped for fresh air.

They ran along the hall. Draco's expression was pained and as he looked along the walls, he had to fight back tears. The cause of the small explosions they had heard earlier was made obvious now. Every picture along the hall that had contained Draco was destroyed, blown to pieces.

The two got to the staircase and nearly ran into somebody, causing the two to gasp and skid to a halt. Before them stood a very shocked Snape.

"Sev!" Draco cried in relief and threw his arms around his godfather who continued to try and register what he was seeing.

Draco broke the hug and stepped back to look at his godfather. Snape's expression quickly turned from shock to anger. Draco took another step back and Harry gulped.

"All clear, find anything Sna—"

Sirius came around the corner and froze, staring at the two boys.

"Harry? Draco?" he asked blankly. He glanced to Snape and realized that the Potions master didn't know about this and figured out what must have happened. His expression too turned into one of barely contained fury.

"We're in trouble," Harry said quietly to Draco, looking back and forth between the two godfathers.

"You can't even fathom what an understatement that is," Snape growled.

.

Snape and Sirius quickly found Dumbledore, who assured them that the rest of the Order could wrap up. Remus decided to go with them, ignoring Snape's protests.

They were now all back in Draco's room at Snape Manor. The two boys were sitting on the edge of the bed, heads hung in shame, while their two godfathers stalked the room in a rage. Remus was trying to calm the two, but they were ignoring him.

"What were you two thinking? I should have expected this sort of behavior from _Potter_…"

Harry winced as Snape reverted to his old way of addressing him. It was obvious the man had completely lost his temper, and Harry knew he deserved it, but it still hurt.

"…but you, Draco. I thought you would be more responsible than to compromise your safety like this!"

"Sneaking off to go to the house of a man who would gladly kill you both?" Sirius continued off Snape's rant. "Are you bloody mad? How could you do this to me Harry after knowing what your death did to me the last time? Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?" he bellowed.

Harry looked up at his godfather sadly, but Sirius shot him such a furious glare that Harry immediately looked back at his lap. Remus warned Sirius not to lose his temper, but the animagus ignored him as Snape continued their raving.

"What would have happened if we weren't there? I thought you two were smart, but there must be nothing in between your ears. Draco, I thought you were trying to change for the better, and then you go do something as foolish as this. Was a stupid _book_ worth your lives? And Potter, you really _are_ the idiot show-off I originally believed you to be," Snape bellowed. "I should have known it when you went off throwing punches and starting fights in Diagon Alley where you not only dragged in Draco, but the Weasleys as well just so you could show off how cool you are."

"What?" Sirius asked, turning to his godson angrily.

"You promised you wouldn't tell!" Harry yelled to Snape with a hurt look.

"Shut your mouth, Potter. I am your professor and I do not owe you the courtesy of keeping my word when you go around and recklessly break the rules of my house and put my godson in danger," Snape growled furiously, sticking a finger in Harry's face.

Harry hung his head.

"Of course you'd automatically assume it was Harry's fault," Sirius sneered at Snape. "I believe it was Draco's things they went after. I knew this friendship would be a disaster. Harry, I think it's time you re-evaluated who you choose as friends."

Snape whipped around to tell Sirius off for the comment, but Harry jumped to his feet.

"It was my idea, not Draco's. It's all _my _fault. If anyone should be re-evaluating who they choose as friends it should be Draco," Harry insisted.

Snape's mouth snapped shut and a gleam of triumph entered his eyes, proud that it wasn't _his _godson causing the trouble.

Sirius's fury grew even more at the revelation.

"So it's not enough putting YOUR life in jeopardy every chance you get, but now you're dragging others into it as well? James would NEVER have done something so stupid," Sirius said in angry disappointment. "I guess you're less like your father than I thought."

Snape snorted at this.

"I-I'm sorry," Harry said weakly.

"Sorry's not good enough. I am so disappointed in you, Harry! I thought you had learned better than to do this sort of thing! What will it take to knock some sense into you? You better pray that I simply lock you in your room for a month rather than give you a punishment you _really _deserve."

Harry's heart practically stopped at this comment, but neither of the two furious men noticed.

"Sirius, I think that's enough," Remus said warningly, standing up sharply.

"No, Moony. Harry's got to understand what a horrible thing he's done. Harry, we'll discuss your punishment later. I can't even look at you right now," Sirius said, shaking with fury as he strode out of the room.

Snape turned to Draco. "Don't think you're getting off easy for this, Draco. I'm very disappointed with your behavior. Once Black and Potter leave, I'll determine what your punishment shall be," he said coldly before leaving the room, slamming the door so hard behind him, that the frame rattled.

Harry was now shaking with terror. Draco had his face in his hands, trying to fight off tears, but Harry looked close to having a panic attack.

"Harry?" Remus asked gently. Harry flinched and his head snapped up.

"Oh my God, it's happening," Harry said wildly, eyes darting around the room as if looking for possible exits. Draco looked up at the Gryffindor worriedly.

"What's happening, Harry?" Remus asked softly.

"I-I screwed up. He knows what I'm really like now and it's going to start being the same, just like Uncle Vernon said!" he said, panicked. Remus's eyes darkened, wondering what exactly Harry's horrible uncle had told him.

"Harry, you know that Sirius would never hurt you. He would never treat you like the Dursleys did."

Harry closed his eyes and shook his head. "I knew this would happen! I knew he would start to hate me too! Oh God Moony please, I can't take it again! I don't want it to be like it was at the Dursleys! I'll be really good from now on, Moony, I promise! I—I just can't take it again, please," Harry pleaded madly.

"Harry, I promise you that Sirius won't hurt you. I swear it. He loves you," Remus insisted.

Harry sat back down and buried his face in his hands, clearly not believing his Defense professor.

Remus sighed and turned to the blonde. "Draco, how are you feeling?"

The Slytherin looked up at him sadly. "Sev's going to kick me out, just like my family did, and I don't have anywhere to go," he said, choking back a sob.

Harry's head snapped back up. The blood had quickly drained from his face.

"What if Sirius sends me back to the Dursleys?" he asked in a horrified whisper.

"Harry that wo—" Remus started but was ignored by the boys.

"Then I'll come with you," Draco stated firmly.

"My aunt and cousin hate me so much though. They'd hate you too because you're a wizard," Harry said shakily. "Or what if my uncle comes back? They didn't keep him in jail last time, what if they let him out again? He'd kill me."

"Harry, you're not going back to the Durs—" Remus tried to interject. The two boys were ignoring him completely.

"I won't let him, are you kidding? Nobody treats my friends that way. Besides, there's no way I'd live in a cupboard. We'd run away. You have money in the bank so we'd live off that until we figured something else out," Draco told Harry firmly, putting his arm around the raven-haired boy's shoulders to try and calm him.

"I just thought I finally had a family," Harry said sadly.

"Me too," Draco muttered in the same tone.

"No running away yet boys. Just try to calm down a bit, all right?" Remus said gently, though he wasn't sure if either boy had even heard him. He sighed and left the room, turning toward the stairs. His anger rose as he heard the two men raging downstairs.

He walked into the room to find the two men screaming at each other.

"Shut it, both of you," Remus snapped angrily, grabbing their attention. "Sit down," he ordered menacingly, letting the wolf in him come to the surface just enough to get his point across.

They both reluctantly and indignantly sat.

Remus paced back and forth in front of them angrily as they had done in Draco's room, turning the tables a bit.

"So, you two decide you're going to be tough godfathers, eh? Lay down the rules and enforce them with an iron fist? Lose your tempers at the boys' first mistake? What the hell were you two thinking up there?" he yelled, pointing furiously to the ceiling.

"They could have been killed. They need to realize what they did," Snape said in defense but Remus shot a glare at him that surprised Snape enough to silence him.

"You, Severus. The boys aren't your students right now. Draco is your godson and Harry seems to look up to you for Merlin knows what reason. They are NOT for terrorizing into obeying your rules! You are the only family Draco has now. He's been cast out and disowned by the Malfoys, and now, because of your behavior, your overreacting, Draco is up there thinking you're going to kick him out, that you're going to disown him too! All because you wanted to play the role of tough guy. And then, reverting to calling Harry, "Potter." It was like you were dehumanizing him and I think he's had enough of that in his life. You would have seen the hurt in his eyes when you did that if you hadn't been so wrapped up in your ranting and raving," Remus said sharply.

Snape looked shocked and guilty. Sirius was now the one looking triumphant. Remus rounded on the animagus.

"Wipe that bloody smirk off your face, Sirius, because you were ten times worse than Severus. Asking Harry, '_do you ever think about anyone but yourself_ '? For Merlin's sake, that's all Harry does! And now you've got him thinking he's selfish. He's never going to put his own needs before anyone else's now! Oh no, but you didn't stop at destroying his self-esteem, you had to keep going," Remus growled angrily. "I really _love_ your choice of words. '_Knock some sense'_ into him. Saying he should pray that you '_simply lock him up for a month_,' rather than a punishment he '_really deserves._' Oh that's just great, Padfoot. Did it perhaps slip your mind that Harry was ABUSED?!" Remus bellowed. "He's up there having a panic attack thinking you're going to take him home and BEAT him. I hope you're satisfied that you got your message across because at least Harry promises to be good from now on if I keep you from hurting him," he spat, voice dripping with sarcasm. He hadn't gotten this angry in a very long time.

Sirius stood up quickly. "He does NOT think that! He _knows_ I wouldn't hurt him."

"Sirius, you and Severus both need to realize that Harry and Draco aren't just your average boys, but both have been abused both physically and emotionally. They need even more reassurance and demonstrations of love than most children. You also need to swallow your pride and realize that you need help. You two need to work together on this because if you stopped and thought about it, Sirius is the best person to help Draco, and Severus is the best person to help Harry."

Snape actually seemed to be listening to Remus, but Sirius just scowled at him angrily. "I can take care of Harry myself. He doesn't need _him_," he spat, gesturing at Snape, "he needs me, his godfather. And he knows I would never hurt him. He knows I love him. You don't know what you're talking about Remus, and I can't believe you would accuse me of…of…whatever you were accusing me of."

"Sirius, would you just listen to me?" Remus yelled.

"No, I'm taking Harry and getting out of here," he declared, walking quickly to the stairs.

"Fine Siri, but when you decide to pull your head out of your arse and help your godson, come to me," Remus shouted heatedly.

Sirius stomped up the stairs, his mind buzzing with disbelief of what his _supposed_ best friend had just accused him of.

He threw open the bedroom door, too involved in his thoughts to notice Harry jump and pale.

"Come on, Harry. We're going," he growled, unable to fully contain his anger at Moony.

Harry quickly jumped to his feet and followed his godfather, trying to stop shivering with fright as he didn't want to incense Sirius further.

Sirius led him quickly to the fireplace. Remus and Snape were having a conversation in which Snape looked quite concerned. Remus looked up at Sirius angrily and gave Harry a sympathetic look. Harry could only gather that he was done for.

He shakily said "the Lighthouse" as he stepped into the fireplace.

The living room at the Lighthouse usually made Harry feel inexplicably happy and comforted, but now it only felt cold and menacing as Sirius emerged from the fireplace behind him.

"In the study," he snapped. "We need to discuss your punishment."

Harry tried to remember to breathe as he walked into the study. As Sirius shut the door behind them, Harry's blood ran cold.

Harry shakily turned to face his godfather, absolutely petrified.

"Now Harry," Sirius started angrily, taking a step forward. Before Harry could stop himself, he had stepped back.

"I-I'm s-sorry," he stuttered with fright, tensing up.

Sirius blinked at him blankly, as if trying to comprehend something.

"Are you scared?" Sirius asked in disbelief. Harry shook he head from side to side vehemently, but his trembling betrayed his true feelings. He took another step back.

Sirius saw that with another step back, Harry was going to hit the rubbish bin. He reached out to grab Harry's arm and pull him away from the bin, but the motion only scared the boy further.

He yanked his arm out of reach and quickly stepped back, falling backwards over the trashcan. Sirius ran forward to help but succeeded only in terrifying his godson who began apologizing like his life depended on it and scooting back until he hit the wall.

"Harry no, please. I'm not going to hurt you," he said desperately, stepping toward the boy. Harry threw his trembling arms up to protect his face.

"I'm so sorry. Please, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry," he whimpered.

Sirius's eyes widened in shock as Harry cowered from him. He held his palms out in front him as a sign of peace.

"Harry, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise," he said shakily as he walked slowly forward. Harry nodded in acknowledgment but Sirius could tell by the terror portrayed in those bright green orbs that the boy didn't believe it.

As Sirius got closer to him, Harry shook violently. It was obvious he was trying to suppress his trembling, but his attempts were having little effect.

Sirius suddenly knelt down in front of him, causing Harry to jerk at the sudden movement, as he did so often ever since the incident with his uncle.

"Harry…" Sirius started sadly. The raven-haired boy flinched.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered shakily. "I—I—"

Sirius pulled Harry into a hug. Harry stiffened in the embrace, his whole body tense as if waiting for something else; waiting for Sirius to decide that a fatherly hug was not what Harry deserved.

"Shh," Sirius said, rubbing small circles on Harry's back to try to calm him, "it's okay. I'm sorry too."

"Please don't hate me. I-I'll be better. Just give me another chance and I'll be more like my father was or whatever you want me to be, I promise. Just please don't hate me yet," Harry pleaded.

Sirius grabbed Harry's shoulders suddenly and pushed them apart so he could look into Harry's face in surprise. Harry yelped at the sudden movement and held his breath, looking terrified as he subconsciously waited to be struck.

"Harry, I would NEVER hate you! Never! What you did tonight was very stupid and dangerous. I'm mad because if something had happened to you, I couldn't…I would be…" He took a deep breath to keep himself from getting emotional and tried again, looking into Harry's nervous eyes. "I would never hurt you, you know that, right?"

Harry looked down sadly, having calmed down now. "Yeah, I know," he said quietly.

Sirius sighed.

"We still have to discuss your punishment, which will be being grounded or having some chores or something, not anything like your uncle did to you," Sirius said gravely.

Harry looked doubtful, but nodded silently.

"How about we just go to bed and talk about it tomorrow?" Sirius suggested gently. "It's been a long night."

The two climbed to their feet and made their way awkwardly out of the room. Harry kept his gaze steadied on the floor as he walked, looking quite shaken. Sirius followed him wordlessly, mentally kicking himself for not listening to Remus and for believing that Harry had escaped years of abuse at the Dursleys' unscathed.

Sirius said goodnight to Harry at his door and left, allowing the boy to change and go to bed. He made his way downstairs to the living room and collapsed in a chair, burying his head in his hands. He just couldn't believe what an idiot he had been. How could he have thought that Harry hadn't been deeply affected by the way his family had treated him. Remus was right; Harry wasn't just an average teenager, and Sirius felt lost. He had thought this would be easy since Harry was such a good kid. Now, for the first time, he realized that he had thought about it all too simplistically. Harry _was_ a good kid, but he had emotional scars that ran under the surface that Sirius had somehow missed. He didn't even know where to start to fix it.

He got up and grabbed a piece of parchment from a drawer and whistled for Hedwig as he sat down to compose his letter.

_Remy,_

You were right. I need help. I'm ready to listen and do whatever you think I should. I'm sorry.

_Siri_

Hedwig landed on his shoulder, nipping Sirius's ear for making her leave Harry's side.

"I know, I know. But I'm trying to help him now," he said softly, tying the note to Hedwig's leg. "Now go take that to Remus."

The snowy owl soared away through the open window out into the night sky.

Sirius absently watched the flames flicker in the fireplace for a while before quietly making his way upstairs.

He cracked open Harry's door and peered inside. The room was dark, the only light coming from the moon outside. Sirius walked over and knelt by Harry's bed, studying his sleeping godson.

Harry looked so innocent and peaceful, yet even in sleep, his eyebrows were slightly knitted as they had been so often in the past few weeks. Sirius's heart clenched as he saw that Harry's pillow was slightly wet and he had the remnants of tears on his face. Sirius gently wiped away a teardrop that was still clinging to Harry's cheek, frowning as the raven-haired boy flinched at the touch even in his sleep. With all the pain in Harry's life, Sirius noticed that he tried to never reveal his emotions to others. Sadness was a secret that Harry hid like it was a sin.

"Oh Harry, why do you always make yourself suffer alone?" Sirius whispered, running his thumb over Harry's famous scar.

.

The next morning, after a night of potion-induced dreamless sleep, Harry woke up and shamefully came down to the kitchen, only to find Sirius getting ready to leave. He said he needed to talk over some serious things with Remus but that they'd be having a long talk soon. Harry didn't even bother believing his words but nodded anyways since that was what he was supposed to do.

He knew he should feel grateful that Sirius had neither hit him nor sent him back to the Dursleys, but he could only feel pained that Sirius had just left him like he didn't even matter.

Maybe he really didn't matter.

.

An hour or so later, Sirius returned and told Harry to floo over to Snape Manor. Harry started to protest, not wanting to face Snape after the previous night, but when Draco came through the fire, looking equally confused, Harry realized what they were doing. He knew it would be good for Draco so he said goodbye to Sirius and flooed over to Snape Manor. He stumbled out of the fireplace, thankfully managing to stay on his feet this time.

"Good afternoon," Snape said, greeting him. Harry avoided his gaze and muttered his hellos.

"Harry…" Snape started, but Harry cut him off.

"Oh, it's Harry again? I thought it was Potter. You know, all this flip-flopping around with my name might trigger an identity crisis of sorts," he said coldly.

"Harry…" Snape started again, guiltily.

"I'm not an idiot. I know why I'm here. Remus convinced you and Sirius to work together and swap godsons for the day. Sirius was disowned from his family for switching to the light side. So was Draco. Voila, it's perfect. They should have had this conversation ages ago. And hey, Sirius hasn't had much luck with me, so he might as well give you a shot. I'm still not sure about what you're trying to do exactly, but I think I've got the general plan down, haven't I?"

"Yes, but there's…"

"Well, _sir_, before you waste your day, let's just end this now. I really hope Sirius can help Draco feel better, but whatever you're trying to do with me isn't going to work. That would require some sort of trust between us, but unfortunately, we seem to be lacking in that lately. I can't trust somebody who can't even make up their mind whether they hate me or not."

Harry felt his throat constrict, but he forced away any emotion.

"Harry, I don't…"

"I think it would be best to stick with Potter. That way, I remember my place as your student, an idiot, show-off, arrogant student, who doubles as a science experiment. And don't worry, this time, I won't forget it, so don't waste your time. You can go do whatever it is you'd be doing if I wasn't here, and I'm just going to sit here until Draco gets back so I can leave. That way, I'll be sure not to overstay my welcome."

Snape closed his eyes and took a calming breath.

Harry looked down at the floor, letting his cold exterior drop momentarily.

"But, um…Professor, I really am sorry about last night. I didn't mean to put Draco in danger. I promise it won't happen again."

"You put yourself in danger too," Snape pointed out.

"Yes, but I put Draco in danger too, and that's what matters," Harry said with a sigh. "But as I said, it will never happen again."

"It matters that you were put in danger too, Harry," Snape tried.

"That would be 'Potter', Professor," Harry said, putting back up his barriers once again. "And this conversation you're trying to start is pointless, so you might as well quit now and try to make something out of the afternoon before you completely waste it."

"Don't take that tone with me, Harry," Snape said warningly.

"Potter," Harry corrected. "And you should say it with some feeling. Maybe you could accompany it with an insult or a death glare or something."

"Stop this, right now. I'm not in the mood for this," Snape snapped.

"So give me detention. You could start up a tally sheet or something so you remember how many to give me when we start school again. You could even take points. I don't really care. Just do whatever catches your fancy," Harry said, his voice only slightly tinged with anger.

"Harry, just give me a chance to…"

"Why? You never gave me one. Or was this summer my chance and I blew it? Whatever, you know what? I don't even care."

"Why are you doing this, Harry? This isn't like you," Snape asked desperately.

"You want to know why?" Harry asked angrily. "Do you know what the absolute worst pain in the entire world is? Worse than the Cruciatus curse, worse than getting beaten with a chair leg or stabbed or thrown through a glass table? It's thinking that someone cares about you and then suddenly finding out they don't. It's humiliating and it hurts like something I could never even describe. And yet, it keeps happening to me over and over again because I'm such a freaking moron. I even thought my relatives loved me, can you believe that? After all they did, I still thought…" He broke off and closed his eyes, getting his emotions under control. "Well, I'm not letting that happen again."

"So you're cutting yourself off from the world and pushing everyone away just because you're afraid of getting hurt?" Snape asked disappointedly.

"Not very Gryffindor of me, is it?" Harry concluded with self-disgust.

"You're not being fair to the people who are trying to help you."

"News flash: life isn't fair," Harry said harshly. "Sometimes, just when you think everything's going to be great, it all falls apart. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it's just not good enough. Sometimes the people you care about don't care about you in return. People will always disappoint you if you're dumb enough to count on them. That's life, and it's time I learned to deal with it rather than believe in something that isn't there."

"What about the flawed perfection you were telling me about?"

"It was crap, something I used to believe in when I was stupid and naïve. Besides, you're forgetting what the main ingredient for flawed perfection is," Harry said.

"Didn't you say it was having people you loved?" Snape asked, trying to remember the conversation better.

"And people who love you back. It doesn't work without that, no matter how much you try to get it to," he said bitterly.

"Harry, there are people who love you," Snape insisted.

"Don't patronize me, Professor. I'm not an idiot anymore," Harry said coldly. Snape decided to try another route.

"Harry, I was angry last night. I said things I didn't mean."

"Well it's becoming a nice little pattern, isn't it? But see, when you keep saying the same things when you lose your temper, it tends to mean you really think they're true," Harry said numbly. "I learned that one from the Dursleys."

"I don't know how to make you believe that I'm telling the truth," Snape said desperately.

"Don't bother. It's not worth the effort. Now if you please, I brought my book and I really should get to reading it," Harry said, opening up the tattered copy of Treasure Island that Kota had leant him. He had started reading it so he could tell the story to Anna, who seemed to like pirates, but he wouldn't admit that now. It would be like admitting a weakness that he cared about anyone, and he didn't want Snape to know. He wanted Snape to see him as strong and invulnerable. Maybe then, Snape would at least respect him, not that Harry cared what Snape thought.

"Harry, put the book down," Snape commanded.

Harry ignored him and tried to block him out.

"Put. The book. Down!" Snape growled through clenched teeth.

Harry turned the page. Even if he now couldn't focus on reading, he wanted to make it seem like he was.

Snape suddenly grabbed the book out of Harry's hands and Harry flinched violently, tensing up as he anticipated pain.

He quickly regained his composure once he realized he wasn't going to be hit and crossed his arms casually, staring into the fire.

"Harry, talk to me."

Harry sat there stone-faced and tight-lipped.

"Harry, I can't help you if you won't talk."

The Gryffindor didn't speak or move. Snape snapped.

"You know what? Fine! I tried. I've done my duty. If you feel like digging yourself into a giant hole, then go right ahead. I'm certainly not the one to pull you out of it. I don't know why they thought I could get through to you anyway," Snape said in frustration. He threw the book into Harry's lap, causing the raven-haired boy to jump. Snape then stormed out of the room.

Harry turned and watched him leave. He desperately wanted to call him back. He didn't want to be alone. But he forced those thoughts from his head. He was meant to be alone. He _had_ to be alone. It was the only way not to get hurt again, because he just wouldn't be able to take it if he had to face rejection one more time, and he was finally beginning to realize that rejection was all he'd ever get from people. It was better not to take the risk of getting attached.

He swallowed back tears and picked up his book once again. He looked around the big, empty room and shuddered, feeling very, very alone.

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Lol, yes, Harry's definitely one hot number! I wish Harry was real so I could have the Witch Weekly mag…or Harry himself, whichever. Poor Harry, he went to all that trouble to have his magazine reconnaissance mission, and it just failed miserably, even though he thought he succeeded. I don't think Harry looks at giving Ron the captaincy as a duty. I think he's happy to do it because he doesn't need another title to prove his worth, he's looking for something else. You must remember that Ron doesn't know that Harry handed it over to him. He just thinks Angelina named him captain and that Harry agrees with the decision. Harry doesn't want Ron to have to be jealous of him, so Harry's more than happy to give Ron a little time in the spotlight. Lol, you're no more evil than me, rest assured. Not a mental disorder, that's all I can say. I like the sleuthing though! Lol, yeah, Harry's idea definitely was not a brilliant one, but hey, it seemed decent at the time. Well, you got the Sirius being mad scene! Lol, and we got mental suffrage for Harry as well! Isn't life grand?

**Lactuca: **Nope, I'm serious about the turkeys. They're kinda cool unless they're in the road blocking your way and you're in a hurry. Wow, a cockerel sounds very fun…sort of. Yes, I've seen that Pride and Prejudice movie and Colin Firth looks might fine indeed in that scene. I loved writing the comments for the Teen Witch mag. Harry's so completely clueless. Lol, don't you wish you were one of the girls in the closet, or is it just me? Yes, Eloise was a traitor, but Ginny didn't think so, I'm sure. I'm sure Harry could just ask Neville to do it as a favor and Neville would after all Harry did for him the previous year in Potions tutoring and such. Don't worry, I'm not bashing Shakespeare. I really like Hamlet. But you must admit, it's not the best material to keep you awake when sleep-deprived, especially if you're not used to reading it. Lol, can't answer your questions, but good sleuthing! Keep it up. Oh wow, that's a bummer. I can't wait until you get back and can read all the chappies you've missed and tell me what you think! Have fun on your trip!

**Myr Halcyon: **lol, oh trust me, I'm not nearly through throwing clues at you, but I like that you're recognizing that some of these things are clues. I'd sure love to see you call Snape a lovable furry old teddy bear to his face. I think he'd beg to differ, even though Anna would definitely agree with you. Lol, yeah, movie-Remy's mustache was very creepy. Interesting theory. Keep on sleuthing, even though I can't confirm or deny your guessing. I can tell you that the bloody nose is happening pretty much every time he gets one of these headaches now, to different degrees depending on how violent the attack is and what little thing Hr. Callahan's trying out at the time to help him. Needless to say, none of it's really worked yet. I really enjoy your sleuthing though! Keep it up, Sherlock!

**Thunder's Shadow: **Oh, you're right! I didn't even catch that, thanks! Lol, yeah, well try telling Harry that. It definitely wasn't a brilliant suggestion. Yup, this story's definitely starting to go down serious road, and will be taking few detours. Yeah, I don't really like it when people start including Ginny into the trio either. Come on, Ron doesn't want to be hanging out with his sister! Harry does, but that's not the point. Lol. That's hilarious about your friend.

**Eowyn of Ithilien: **Wow! Hi! I thought you'd dropped off the face of the planet! I'm glad to have you back! I'm so glad you like the sequel so far! I'm glad you found Vernon's motive clear, since many didn't understand why he'd come back. Yeah, Siri's having some parenting issues he needs to deal with. Well, he's starting to at least! I'm glad you like my H/D friendship going on, and lol, them jumping each other would certainly make many of my readers happy (and probably me as well, lol), but I'm sticking with H/G! I'm so glad you like my characterization, as that's a very key point to the story. Lol, yeah, it's about time Eloise and Neville got together. The "you're off your rocker" look? I get that quite often. Let's just say I always test out dialogue I'm thinking about for my story by speaking out loud, and if my sis didn't know what I was doing, she'd probably think I had multiple personality disorder or something, lol. But I still get weird looks when she walks in and I'm sitting there looking in the mirror going "Harry, I can't help you if you don't talk." Lol, don't worry, I'm doing a pretty good job of figuring out how to create a world of pain for Harry right here. It's great to have you back!

**alternativelyspliced: **no, I never get sick of hearing people say they like my chapters! I love it each time. Lol, don't worry, the main conflict in this story is impossible to predict really, though someone got really close to another thing I've been leaving clues for, though before you start frantically looking through my reviews, I should mention that it might not have been in a review. Hahaha! A "frustration hammer." I love it! Of course, my story is the epitome of peace and togetherness. No, Eloise and Neville aren't going to find out about it. Harry needs someone who doesn't know about it, and it would just be redundant if I did, as I doubt there's really a wide variety of ways to respond to that that I haven't already covered. I think you've got a pretty good idea of why Harry can't ask for help. Cliffhangers are definitely fun for me, and well, at least it keeps you all on the edge of your seat, and you must admit, it's much more exciting to get the next chapter when the previous one had a cliffie! Lol, don't worry, I'm highly sarcastic myself, which is not always great, because once I thought this flame was really just being sarcastic, but then I figured out it wasn't, lol. I'm so glad you like the fic though!****

**Savoy Truffle: **Lol, thank you! Yeah, Eloise and Neville were dating as of Chapter 9. Yeah, the testing is very painful and very stressful for Harry. His headache attacks are just horrible, and all Hr. Callahan's really succeeded at is making Harry be able to not pass out during them, which though Callahan says is actually a good thing health-wise, Harry doesn't agree as he actually has to be conscious for all the pain. Draco's not insulting Harry, he's just showing off and being his high-class little self, and Harry knows it and doesn't take offence. Sirius does have a huge manor, but as it says in Chapter 1, he doesn't like it there (it was his parents old house) and the Lighthouse is a cottage he bought after spending a bit with the Potters after he ran away and he loves it, and so does Harry, so they just ignore the manor Sirius has. Lol, I too have different ideas of what the characters look like than their movie versions, though my idea seems a bit different than yours, lol.

**DumDum124**: Thanks! I'm so glad you like it so much!! Your review made me go all giddy! Lol, I'm so happy I made you cry…in a non-sadistic way, I assure you! I'm really happy you liked my characterizations, especially Eloise, since I really wanted to bring her out a little more. I'm so relieved you didn't think Kota was a Mary-Sue, because that's one of my biggest fears with this story. Lol, I'm glad you don't despise my H/G pairing here! I'm glad to have shown you the upside to that pairing, because really that was my goal in putting them together. I'm so glad you never lost interest. I'm glad you're not disappointed in the sequel and hope you continue to like it. Lol, yeah, now that you're all caught up, you're going to have to wait for updates with the rest of 'em, but I hope you continue to review and enjoy it! Really, thank you for your awesome review. It really made my day and put me into a really good mood.

**Dana (SerpentandtheLion): **no worries, it's nice to get a review from you to let me know you're still with me! Answering your question, Harry _hasn't_ really dealt with the Dursley's abuse. He's just bottled it all up inside and just sort of ignored it all. Harry's had all this stuff that he's just forced himself to live with, but this last event just passed the limit of what he could take. It wasn't really the event itself, it was many things the event brought up. There was the shame of having everyone there when it happened. He once again felt like he had put his friends in danger. What Vernon said to him sort of brought to surface all these doubts he'd been having lately, several which he hadn't really had before this summer. Also, it was the aftermath of it, how nobody talked to him about it (which previous times he could tell himself it was because they didn't know what was going on, but now there's really no excuse). And he has major insecurities about his friends right now, especially Ron, which you'll see later. Hopefully that answers your question. I could go on longer, but I think you get the point. I'm glad you agree with my reasons for taking away Harry's super-powers.

**BabyBlu4, yellowpages, leontine-456, Lorie1101 **(oh yes, much angst and more ahead!), **angel74 **(lol, when I find out you've updated, I generally have to calm myself down before going ahead and reading. Harry's definitely a bit foolish, but what can you do with the kid besides love him to death?), **A-Brighter-Dawn, gina87, Idhren **(Lol, why thank you! I'm glad you like my portrayal of F&G as I adore their characters and agree with you that there's more depth to them. Of course I can't answer your question, but keep sleuthing, you never know when you may be onto something.), **Shawn Pickett, Black-Rose1243, Lourdes **(don't let real life steal your sanity, fanfiction's always a good way to escape reality), **Blulily07, lilynjamesAAF, lyss33, Mayem El-Diablo, shadowarwen, Dominey **(lol, that is my ultimate goal, of course, to drive you all mad by putting in cliffies), **musicstarlover, holly, Charlie Quill **(I'm so glad you're emotionally attached! Scolding of their lives indeed. Don't you wish you got Witch Weekly now? Lol. Yay! A gold star!!), **Shadow Wolf2418 **(thank you so much! I used to be like that, but I now imagine exactly how I want my fic to go and then fit any other scene I think of into it, or if it can't fit, write it down and put it away for another story. I don't know, for some reason I was just able to stick with these two all the way through, maybe because I was so excited to write the climaxes for both of them.), **Marci018 **(Lol, of course! Harry's a hottie, even if he doesn't see it! Well, if things didn't keep happening to Harry, the story wouldn't be all that interesting anymore. A livejournal would be interesting, but _I'm_ not so it would lose its appeal pretty quickly, lol. Not to mention I have no clue about computers.), **torifire126, EriEka127, MissLilyStar **(lol, Filch quote! Yay! More like a den of snakes, but yes, not the best idea, but then again, haven't we all done really stupid things before? Or is it just me? Hello? Anyone? Oh well. lol, you braved fire for your journal? I think I would have too, so I congratulate you for your dedication and bravery, even if it wasn't a real fire), **corinnetkn24, Kfelton, Catiechan, azntgr01, Alaranth-88, DreamersDisease, Lmill123 **(Well, now that Harry doesn't have cancer, Ron isn't looking for Harry having those sort of issues because he just doesn't expect them. Just put yourself in their places. They're not getting the same perspective we are and it's harder for them to see this, especially if they see him everyday and it's happening gradually. It's easy to look at the situation and see it for what it is, but it's different when you're involved like the characters are.), **pennypacker, Von, Dana a.k.a. Mysticphoenix, Etzgo, shadowsfriend **(I'm glad you like Flawed Perfection! I'm always worried people won't think the sequel lives up to the original), **later days, therese, lost angel92, Lost Book, kneh13, Luinlothana **(hey! Long time no hearing from you! Lol, I don't know if the last scene would have proved Harry's maturity, more like stupidity that everyone has once in a while. Lol, hope you don't have any sleepless nights. Wow, European law! Congrats!), **NathanPostmark, tati1 **(lol, enjoyed the Krum imitation!), **stahchild **(don't dislike Sirius! He just doesn't know what he's doing, but he does care!), **athenakitty, Dakana Warrior, Elementation, SillyGillie **(The shirtless pictures were after all that, but he had concealing charms on to hide it. Yeah, Draco's a good fencer! Woohoo go Dray!!), **mickeymoose, ThreeToedSloth, CentralsPrincess15 **(No, Harry's spending about equal time with Draco and the Weasleys. I just happen to often write about his times with Draco's since they can be a bit more relative to the plot so I could see how you'd get that. He visits both all the time, and have both of them over to his house a lot, at different times), **X-Goddess of Imaginary Light-X **(lol, well, they don't quite meet again, thank Merlin for Harry's invisibility cloak! Hehehe, me? Make Harry get worse? Never! Um, just ignore this chapter innocent look), **Girlwhoshowspigs **(congrats for you and your guy. Ginny and Harry are obviously having a more difficult time of it. Both are a bit too shy for their own good when it comes to each other. I'll explain more later in the fic.), **Phoenixmarauder, Siri Kat, SiriusWolf, HP-Azn, Helen, Madame Moony, Earthmom **(thank you so much! That really means a lot.),** Milenn Cassandra Riddle, Leena7, The REAL Sirius Black **(That's very interesting. I never thought about that sort of relationship with James Potter. Very creative. Lol, and you're welcome for writing, er…you with a life no longer in ruins. I'm glad you like the fic and yes, Harry's not only Draco's best friend, but his only friend, the only real friend he's ever known.), **Darktiger2, hpfanchrissy1502 **(lol, yes I'm still writing this. I update once a week), **Crystal113 **(well, turns out they didn't move the meeting, but were dealing with some other stuff: distraction in Little Whinging and then Lucius turning up back home.),** Velith **(Yup, typical of Harry to give up his captaincy, and also typical of him to go find trouble first thing he can. Lol, I left it there because I like to torture you. Hope you have a grand old time in Jolly England! I loved it there!)


	17. Doubts and Distrust

**Author's Note: **Ahoy everyone.  Still taking suggestions for questions for PK to ask to JKR!  Thank you all so much for all the reviews!! It was the most I've ever received for a chapter, and I'm therefore updating early!!  Thank you!

"Where's Sirius?" Draco asked, looking at the hammock warily as he cautiously climbed on, making sure it wouldn't flip.  He lied down facing Harry so they could talk better.  He folded his hands behind his head as Harry shrugged and put down the book he was reading.

"He got an owl and said he had to go off again to talk with Professor Snape and then with Remus.  Speaking of which, how did your talk with Sirius go earlier today?" Harry asked, hoping Draco got something out of it.

"It was good, actually.  It was sort of weird at first since I don't know Sirius all that well, but he told me all about how his family disowned him and how he had to move out and everything…it's just nice to know I'm not the only one, I guess."

"Are you still mad about what he said last night?" Harry asked.

Draco shrugged. "Not really.  Sev had a long talk with me last night and he said they were both just scared that we were so reckless with our safety and that they didn't mean the things they said, and only said them out of anger.  He told me he'd never kick me out and wants me to stay there forever, preferably," he said with a slight grin.

Harry nodded. "That's good," he said, not knowing what else to say.

"Um, so, I guess your talk with Sev didn't go as well?" he asked cautiously.

"What makes you say that?" Harry asked nonchalantly.

"Oh, maybe how you were waiting for me by the fireplace and Sev wasn't even in the room and how you were out of there as soon as I came through.  And possibly because Sev's gone into one of his potion-making frenzies where he makes a bunch of easy potions so he can do something and think at the same time, which he only does when he's stressed.  So what gives?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know; it doesn't matter.  So has Professor Snape figured out what your punishment is yet?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.  Draco took the bait, always eager to whine to someone.

"Yes, he made me clean!  I had to dust things and scrub things and polish things, all without magic!  Like a Muggle or a house elf," he moaned in disgust. "Ugh, I had dust all over me and there was a spiderweb in my hair.  Afterward I had to spend almost an hour in the shower to make sure it was all off and I still felt like I had spider webs all over me."

"Oh you poor thing," Harry said in mock-horror, "that must have been traumatizing!"

"It was," he pouted.  "Anyway, I found something," he said seriously, pulling out the book they had gotten from Malfoy Manor.  He opened it to a bookmarked page and handed it to Harry. 

Harry looked from the picture in the book up to Draco, who had taken out his amulet and held it up.  It was identical to the picture in the book.

"The Draco Amulet," Harry read.  "Fitting."

"Yeah, that's why I figured I got it.  Obviously, my name's Latin for dragon, so let's just say it's a common theme with gifts.  Read on," Draco instructed.  Harry lowered his eyes to the page.

_The Draco Amulet has been in the Malfoy family for hundreds of years, passed down to those who the giver feels best deserves its protection.  The majestic it was named after is not only a symbol of leadership and wealth; the dragon is also known for its extreme protectiveness, whether it be over its treasure or someone it cares for.  Protection is precisely the amulet's function.  The ancient magic will save the wearer's life when death is upon them, no matter the cause, and will only work if the wearer would die without it.  Even the killing curse cannot break the amulet's protection.  However, once the amulet is used, it will not work again for one hundred years.  If the eyes of the silver dragon are green, the power can be used, and once used, the eyes will turn black for one hundred years until the amulet's power has returned._

"When my grandmother gave it to me, she said to use it well, and not to be foolish with it, and I hadn't the slightest idea what she meant.  Of course, I thought she was a bit nutters, but really, she was probably one of the few sane ones in my family," Draco said. 

"Wow, no wonder your father wants it so badly.  It's like being given a second chance at life where you usually would have died," Harry said in awe.

"Yeah.  I'm sure my dad's furious she didn't give it to him.  She was his mother," he said, shaking his head in disbelief as he examined the charm with a newfound sense of respect.  "Of course, now Sev forbids me to take it off," he said with a small smile.

"For good reason.  You shouldn't take it off.  So, why do you think your grandmother gave it to you?" Harry asked curiously.

"My grandmother…I didn't understand her for a very long time," Draco started explaining, sounding regretful.  "When I was younger, she'd always pull me aside at family functions and tell me that I needed to make decisions for myself and never to let myself be controlled.  I thought she was a bit insane at the time, to tell you the truth.  When I was about thirteen, maybe, she told me how she never got a say in how my father was raised, because his father was so overbearing and controlling, and that he basically decided my father's life, and my father played right into it.  I guess she saw that history was repeating itself with me, but of course, I didn't see that at the time.  I thought I _was _making my own decisions and that my father was just giving me really good advice," he said with a hollow laugh.

"So what changed?" Harry asked.

"Well, as I've told you before, when the Dark Lord came back, it didn't take me that long to figure out it wasn't what I had expected.  My father…he brought me to a lot of their meetings.  He started teaching me all the protocol and how everything went, and it just sounded so…different from what I'd always thought.  The whole thing was always glorified in my mind until I actually got the inside look; then it just started making me sick.

"So that Christmas holiday, my grandmother pulled me aside as usual and said she could see I was indecisive and that she was proud.  She said that my father was trying to mold me into what he wanted me to be and that that wasn't going to change.  She said not to let myself be molded and to do what I thought was right.  That's when she gave me the amulet and the book and said to use the journal to organize my thoughts and never to take off the amulet.  She said she had a feeling I was going to be the one to need it.  I guess she was right."

"But you didn't change after Christmas, I mean, no offense, Dray, but you continued on being your charming old bastard self well on through the school year," Harry pointed out.

"You call it being a bastard, I call it helpful criticism," Draco said with a smirk.

Harry gave him a pointed look.

"Fine, fine.  I was a bastard," Draco relented.  "What can I say, I was bored and it was my only source of entertainment.  And I was in a transitional phase and it was difficult.  I didn't want to believe what my grandmother had said.  Who wants to think they're father's just trying to mold you into his little tool?  He kept saying to watch out for you because you were out to get anyone who might be in league with the Dark Lord, especially me.  I was just trying to show you I was tough and could take you."

Harry couldn't help but laugh at this and neither could Draco.

"So what changed that?" Harry asked.  "Because I know at one point you really backed off and then, of course, there was the whole not torturing me thing later, which I'm mighty grateful for, by the way."

"Because then, you had to pull your whole saving me as I plummeted from my broom stunt and wasn't even expecting anything in return.  I mean what was that?  You were supposed to hate me," Draco said almost accusingly.

"Sorry to confuse you at such a critical point," said Harry in mock-concern.

"Well you did confuse me because you were _supposed_ to be my enemy but hell, I hated people I was supposed to be friends with more than you.  Oh and I saw you telling off those Gryffindors and Ravenclaws for picking on Crabbe's little brother, which also made it seem that perhaps my father wasn't exactly up with his facts.  I don't know, it just became more and more obvious throughout the year that I didn't want to be on the side I was on, and I guess I was forced to make my choice when they tried to get me to torture you, and well, you know the rest.  You know, when that happened, I was only a week or two away from being initiated.  A nice ugly tattoo burned into my arm.  Can you imagine, marring up my perfect skin?" he asked in disgust.

"No, not your perfect skin!" Harry teased.  "So, what did your grandmother say about your big decision?"

Draco looked down at the amulet with a dark expression. "She died right before it happened.  She never knew."

"I'm sorry, Draco," Harry said sincerely. "I'm sure she knows, though, wherever she is, and I'm sure she's proud."

"You think?" Draco asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I do," Harry said honestly.

"Good.  I hope that wherever she is, she's having a huge party to celebrate my existence, and maybe as a present she can send down some bolts of lightning and take out a few people I'm not too fond of," Draco said dreamily.

Harry shook his head with a chuckle.

"What?" Draco asked innocently.

.

"Okay," Harry said, looking at the list of things he wanted to tutor Ron about that night.  It was only two days until Snape was due to give Ron the test to see whether he would be allowed into Advanced Potions and Ron needed serious studying help.  Harry had briefly considered denying him, as part of his pushing people away idea, but Ron had never really hurt him and he couldn't bring himself to do that to him.  It would be far too lonely without his best friend, and he wasn't sure he could handle it just then. "Where are we on the list?" he asked tiredly. "The Invigoration Draught?"

"No, we already covered that," Ron said, his voice tinged with worry as he snuck another glance at the dark circles underneath Harry's eyes.  The raven-haired boy had been out of it throughout the whole study session.  It was obvious he was exhausted but was also very adamant about getting through everything he had planned.

"We did?  When?" Harry asked in confusion, trying to remember.

"Five minutes ago.  Right before we did that potion that makes the drinker really tired, the Emalfni one."

"The Emalfni potion?  I told you that it makes people tired?"

"Yeah."

"What did I tell you the Eugitaf potion does?"

"It warms up the drinker," Ron said proudly.

Harry groaned.  "I mixed them up.  Sorry, Ron.  I don't even remember doing them, but it's the other way around.  Emalfni heats people up, Eugitaf makes people tired.  I'm sorry, I'm totally messing you up here."

"So I'm guessing the powdered Phoenix feather and that set of ingredients goes into the Emalfni then?" Ron asked sympathetically.

Harry paused and Ron thought he was thinking about the question before Harry blinked over at him.

"Wait, what was the question again?" he asked bashfully. "Sorry."

"Harry, let's end here for tonight, okay?  You need some sleep and I'll just study this on my own," Ron said, starting to gather his things.

"No, no.  I'm fine, really," Harry protested. "I was just sort of zoning out there.  We need to get you into Advanced Potions."

"Harry, you need to sleep.  You're mixing everything up anyways, and it would be better to do it when you're awake enough to do this," Ron said gently.

Hedwig hooted as if agreeing with Ron.  The owl had started following Harry everywhere.  He wasn't sure why, but Hedwig had ceased going hunting lately and had taken to trailing Harry all over the Lighthouse, constantly nuzzling against him lovingly and nipping at his ear whenever he entered the kitchen or grabbing pieces of food and flying it to him.  Harry was baffled by his pet's bizarre behavior, but had to admit he enjoyed the company.

"But there's not enough time for that!  He's testing you in a couple days," Harry insisted.

"Harry, no offense, mate, but you keep messing up with tutoring me tonight anyways," Ron said, trying not to offend his friend. "I mean, you've been doing an excellent job with tutoring me, but just not tonight."

Harry paused thoughtfully, blinking hard to try to keep his eyes open.  He looked up at Ron with a wary expression.  "I have an idea.  You might not like it, but really, it's all we can do," he said, getting up. "Just wait here and try not to have a panic attack when I come back, all right?"

Ron nodded perplexedly as his friend left the kitchen of the Lighthouse.  Ron looked back to his books and the notes Harry had helped him take and began to try to read ahead.  He sighed.  It wasn't working; he couldn't learn it just by reading it.  It got far too confusing and didn't make any sense.  He hadn't been lying before; Harry had been an excellent tutor.  Ron just needed to have someone explain things to him because the book just didn't make any sense to him. 

He tapped his pencil rhythmically on his Potions book as he tried to make sense of what the book was saying.  He kept glancing up, wondering what was taking Harry so long and what his brilliant idea was.  He got a silent chuckle out of the thought that perhaps Harry's brilliant idea was to go upstairs and go to sleep.

Finally, Harry returned, coming through the kitchen door with a cautious glance at Ron. 

"Don't freak out," he mouthed before coming fully into the kitchen, leading someone in behind him.

"Malfoy?" Ron asked incredulously. "You brought Malfoy?"

Draco scowled at him, not looking too happy about being there himself.

"Look, Ron, Draco's better than me at Potions, and I'm just screwing you up tonight.  We don't have enough time left to skip a night of tutoring.  You need to get into Advanced Potions.  Please, Ron, just try this?" Harry asked.  Ron was about to protest but saw the desperation in Harry's eyes and the dark circles under them and relented.

"Fine," he grumbled. 

Draco reluctantly sat down next to him.

"Er, I'll go make some tea," Harry said cautiously before walking to the other side of the kitchen.  He started noisily bustling around to start making the tea.

"Look, Weasley, I don't want to be here either, but Harry looks like he's going to collapse so I'm doing this to help him.  Just go along with it, okay?" Draco said quietly so that Harry couldn't hear.

"Fine.  Let's just stick to Potions and not talk about anything else, okay?  Then there's a lesser risk of me punching you in the face," Ron whispered back.

"Fine with me, Weasley," he said quietly before returning to a normal volume voice. "Okay, so Harry said he had a list of things he wanted to go over," he said in a business-like tone.

Ron reluctantly pushed over the list, feeling humiliated at all the things he didn't know.  "We were up to there," he said, pointing to a spot on the list. 

"Well, Harry said he's been messing up so far on some of them, so I'll go over them with you first, and if you already know one well enough, we'll skip it," Draco suggested.  Ron nodded glumly and Draco began to go through them as Harry clumsily made tea.

Harry soon brought three steaming cups to the table and set two in front of his friends.  The two both looked up at him each casting him uneasy looks.  Harry just smiled reassuringly and slumped into the chair across from them as the two turned back to the books casually sipping their tea. 

Harry watched them for a while, interjecting any helpful hints or occasionally making a comment to break some tension.  But soon, exhaustion claimed him and he fell asleep at the table.  The other two lowered their voices slightly.

"Do you understand?" Draco asked imperiously after explaining another concept to Ron.

"Yes," the redhead muttered.

"No you don't."

"Yes I do," Ron snapped.

"Then explain it back to me," Draco challenged.

Ron just glared back at him. "You know what?  Fine, you're right!  I'm a stupid idiot and I don't understand anything, okay?  Are you happy?" he said angrily.  Draco shushed him urgently as Harry began to stir.

"Weasley, the reason I think you're an idiot has nothing to do with your Potions skills, okay?  Now keep your bloody voice down," Draco hissed. 

Ron looked away in humiliation and anger.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Look Weasley, you suck at Potions.  Deal with it.  Everyone sucks at something.  Harry sucks at choosing a decent place to sleep.  I suck at Charms.  Feel better?" he asked with a slight sneer at having to reveal one of his weaknesses to his worst enemy. "Besides, Harry and I both are getting tutored in Potions by my godfather.  I don't think you're an idiot for needing tutoring.  There are a great many other reasons I think you're an idiot, but that's beside the point," he said with a smirk.  Ron shot him a glare. "Now, if you have a question, ask it, because I don't want to waste my time trying to figure out what your question might be, okay?"

"Fine," Ron said moodily. "I don't get why it matters which way you stir it and how many times you stir it.  It seems like it would be all mixed up in the end anyways, so I just don't get it."

Draco listened to the question with a blank expression.  Ron waited for the derogatory comment, but one never came.

"In potions, the ingredients being combined are often highly sensitive when mixed or brought to a higher temperature.  Sometimes, if they are mixed together even one stir too much, it could cause them to have some very volatile reactions and if they aren't mixed enough, they might not combine properly.  The direction can be important sometimes because certain ingredients have a tendency to sink to different depths of the mixture or repel other ingredients and end up separating from others in very distinct patterns.  For example, in the Invigoration Potion, all the ingredients, after adding them, always fall into distinct patterns just because the nature of them repels the other ones to different degrees.  So, when you go to stir the ingredients, you must start going clockwise because the Nimitiv needs to combine with the powdered Rakashka tail before it mixes with the Horntail claw, is that a bit clearer?" he said calmly.

Ron nodded truthfully, still surprised that Draco hadn't made fun of him. 

The two continued through the list, with Ron less afraid to voice his questions.

At one point, their attention was caught when Harry's breath quickened noticeably.  They both looked up worriedly to see Harry's eyebrows knitted together and a scared expression on his face.

"Harry?" Ron called worriedly, reaching over to shake his friend awake.  As soon as he touched him, Harry shot up in his seat with a gasp, eyes lit up with fright. 

His eyes immediately landed on his two friends, looking at him in concern.  Harry looked away.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked casually, his voice sounding very weary.

"About an hour and a half," Ron informed him.  Harry smiled at them tiredly, taking a sip of his cold tea.

"Wow, and you guys haven't killed each other.  I'm so proud," he teased. "How's the tutoring going?"

"Good," Ron said shortly, not wanting to flatter Draco too much, but not wanting to offend him either.  It was the least he could do after the blonde had put so much effort into tutoring him. "Why don't you go back to sleep?" he suggested.  Harry quickly averted his eyes.

"No, I'm not tired anymore," he lied, a slightly haunted tone to his voice. 

Ron and Draco exchanged a look.  Harry had always been a completely crap liar.

"Well, we're almost done, and then we can leave so you can get some sleep," Ron said, mentally knocking a few things off the list Harry had made.  He could figure those out later.

Harry's head shot up. "You don't have to go," he said quickly, sounding slightly panicked. "Draco, do you have anything to add to the list I made?  I mean you're probably more familiar with what Professor Snape will put on the test."

"Harry, you need some rest.  If you want, I can come back tomorrow to tutor Weasley, but you've been really tired lately.  You need to go to sleep," Draco said firmly.

"I don't want to go to sleep," Harry insisted pleadingly.  "I don't need to go to sleep.  I'm not tired anymore."

"Well, _I'm _getting tired, so we're going to call it quits soon," Ron lied.  Harry obviously needed his sleep and he wouldn't get it if the two of them were there.  Ron doubted Harry would get it even without them there, but at least there was a higher chance of it that way. 

Harry looked down dejectedly. "Oh, okay.  But don't feel rushed.  Take as long as you like.  I'm going to make some more tea if you guys want it," he said, getting up.  He didn't want them to leave.  It would be so much easier to stay awake if the other two were there to stay awake with him.  He liked the company; he didn't want to be alone.

"Harry, don't make tea right now, it's right before bed," Draco pointed out. "It'll keep you up."

Ron thought that might be the point.

"It's fine.  I'm not tired anyways," Harry said, though his body language said differently.  As he sluggishly began to go through the motions of making tea, there were times when Ron was sure he was going to collapse onto the kitchen floor. 

"Harry, have you been sleeping much lately?" Draco asked bluntly.  Harry stiffened at the question and turned around with a confused expression plastered on to his face.

"Yeah, of course.  Where are you guys on the list I made?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Almost done," Ron answered, frustrated that Harry was closing himself off. "It's kind of late, maybe I'll just stay the night.  Is that all right, Harry?" Ron asked in a moment of inspiration. 

Harry looked down at the floor. "Um, actually, tonight's not a good night, Ron.  I have a…I have a healer's appointment tomorrow morning."

"I thought you had them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays," Draco challenged. "Tomorrow's Saturday.  Besides, Sev always goes with you to them and he would have told me if he was going to be gone tomorrow morning."  He seemed to have realized that it would be good to have someone there to make sure Harry got to bed, or at least to find out how much sleep Harry was actually getting. 

Harry looked somewhat flustered at having been caught in a lie.  "Oh right.  Just got confused with the days, I guess," he muttered. "Um…I think Sirius…"

"Said you two didn't have anything planned for tomorrow and that I was welcome to stay the night if I wanted," Ron butt in. 

"Oh, okay.  Then yeah, sure," Harry said awkwardly.  It was obvious that he didn't want Ron to stay the night, but Ron didn't take it personally.  He knew that Harry hadn't slept the night he spent at the Burrow, and he was suspecting this was a nightly pattern now, a pattern he was trying to hide from everyone. 

"So stop making tea, Harry, because I'm exhausted and we're going to go to bed soon and I don't want to have you bouncing off the walls while I'm trying to sleep," Ron said sternly, sounding frighteningly like his mother, a fact that disturbed him a bit.

Harry sighed and looked longingly at the tea.  "Okay," he muttered, before reluctantly putting it away.

Draco quickly explained one last potion to Ron before they quit, not bothering with the small bunch they had skipped. 

"Er, thanks, Malfoy," Ron said awkwardly, as the blonde made to leave.  Draco nodded curtly in acknowledgement before saying goodbye to Harry and Flooing back home. 

Harry didn't even bother telling Sirius that Ron was staying, since the Animagus was already asleep.  Ron quickly stuck his head through the fire to tell his parents he was staying at the Lighthouse for the night before the two boys went up to Harry's room. 

With Ron's help, Harry dragged the extra mattress out from under his bed.  Ron watched as Harry looked at his closet warily as he slowly walked toward it to get the linens.  Ron dodged over and opened it before Harry got to it, grabbing the extra sheets off the top shelf and the extra pair of pajamas he'd stowed there.  He felt a pang of guilt, wondering if the seemingly harmless prank with he and the twins jumping out of Ginny's closet in the dark had unintentionally worked its way into Harry's fears, though he doubted it was the three redheads Harry feared would be behind the door. 

Finally the two flicked off the lights and crawled into their respective beds.

"Night, Ron," Harry said before turning over in his bed to face the window, his back toward Ron.

"Night, Har," Ron said, not letting his disappointment work its way into his voice.  With Harry's back toward him, it would be nearly impossible to figure out if the raven-haired boy had gone to sleep.

Ron settled back into his pillow and settled for trying to listen for Harry's breathing to even out. 

.

A little over an hour later, Ron was beginning to drift into sleep, when he was brought back to awareness by a choked sob.  It took a few seconds for him to realize what was going on, but when he realized Harry was thrashing around on the bed above him, Ron scrambled off of the mattress and was immediately at his friend's side.

Harry's face was screwed up in terror and he was letting out the occasional sob as a few tears dripped down his face.  He had gotten tangled up in his covers and was trying to kick and push them away. 

"Harry!  Harry wake up!" Ron hissed, grabbing Harry's shoulders and shaking them a bit.

Harry bolted upright in bed, with a great gasp.  He frantically struggled to get away from Ron, not fully aware of what was going on.

"No, let me go!" he said quickly in a terrified voice. "No, please."

"Harry.  Harry, it's me.  It's Ron," Ron said calmingly, not letting go of Harry's shoulders.

Harry stopped fighting back.

"Ron?" he asked, squinting through the darkness.  Ron handed Harry his glasses from his nightstand.

"Yeah, it's me."

Harry hit his arm. "You idiot.  What the hell?  You nearly gave me a heart attack!" he hissed, trying to calm down.

"You were having a nightmare," Ron explained, sitting down on the edge of Harry's bed. 

Harry stilled. "Oh."

"What was it about?" Ron asked gently. 

"I can't remember.  Probably Sirius's cooking," Harry joked dismissively.

"You were crying," Ron said quietly. 

"Was not," Harry snapped defensively. 

Ron pointed to Harry's face, where several tears still clung to his skin.  Harry wiped them away quickly and looked away.

"Was it about your uncle?" Ron asked softly.

"No," Harry said quickly. "Of course not.  It was…it was nothing.  Why don't we just go back to sleep?"

"Don't you mean _me _go back to sleep while you stay up for the rest of the night?" Ron asked with a slight edge to his voice.  "Look, Harry, it's nothing to be ashamed about.  Your family was horrible to you and hurt you every chance they got, when they were supposed to be there for you.  And then your uncle attacked you after you thought it was all over.  It would give anyone nightmares.  Even _I _have nightmares from it occa…"

"It wasn't like that," Harry interrupted defensively.

"What wasn't like that?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Look, it wasn't as bad as you think.  They weren't horrible to me.  They took me in.  They let me stay.  They…"

"Harry!" Ron interrupted incredulously. "They abused you!"

"They did not!" Harry protested. "You don't know anything!"

"Your uncle beat you up and tried to kill you several times!"

"They were accidents!"

Ron gaped at him.

"You don't really think that," he said in disbelief.

"He just had a drinking problem.  And a temper problem.  It wasn't his fault.  He couldn't help it and he didn't mean to…" Harry rationalized.

"Harry, why are you making excuses for him!  He singled you out!  He didn't touch your cousin or your aunt!  He didn't lock them in a cupboard or starve them.  He did it to you and he did it on purpose, can't you see that?  For Merlin's sakes he hunted you down at the Stensons after all this time!  Can't you see your family treated you like scum?" Ron asked incredulously.

"They…they…no!  They didn't mean to!  They wouldn't hurt me on purpose!  They're my family and they love me!" Harry yelled. 

He immediately fell silent and his eyes grew wide.  He blinked several times in surprise, trying to register what he had just said.  He didn't even know where that had come from.  He couldn't _actually_ believe something so clearly untrue, could he?

But he wanted to believe it.  He wanted to believe it so badly, and had wanted to believe it for so long.  Maybe he wanted it so badly that he had actually made himself believe it at some level.  Maybe that's why it hurt so horribly.

"I…I-I…" he stammered, feeling the need to say something but not know what.

Ron was looking at him in shock.

"I didn't…I didn't mean that…I don't know where that came from.  I don't really think that, really.  I know…I know that's not true…I just…um…I need to go to the loo, excuse me," Harry said, still stunned.  He pushed passed Ron and dazedly got out of bed.

"Harry, wait," Ron called, but Harry just ignored him, feeling utterly humiliated.

Out in the hall, he nearly collided with Sirius.

"Hey, Har.  Is everything okay?  I thought I heard yelling.  Is someone else here?  Did Ron stay over?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah.  Ron's…Ron's here," Harry said distractedly. "We're fine.  Ron just saw a spider, that's all."

"Oh, okay," Sirius said in relief. "Oh hello, Ron.  Don't worry about being afraid of spiders.  They're really creepy with all those legs, even if Harry here's not afraid of them," he said as the redhead came into the doorframe, misinterpreting the look on Ron's face.  He turned back to Harry.  "You sure everything's okay then?"

"Yeah, of course.  I'm just going to the loo.  See you in the morning, Sirius," Harry said. 

Sirius ruffled his hair and descended the stairs.

Harry quickly made his way to the bathroom and closed the door behind him and locking it.  He sank down to the floor and stared at the opposite wall.

"Harry?" came the quiet call from the other side of the door.

"I'm fine.  Go back to bed, Ron," Harry choked out, putting his head in his hands.

He heard the footsteps pad away and then come back.  There was a scraping sound and a click before the door slowly opened.  Harry nearly groaned as he realized the twins had obviously taught their brother how to pick locks.

Ron entered, shut the door behind him and sat down next to Harry.

"I could have been using the toilet, you know," Harry pointed out, eyes focused on his knees. 

"Possibly, but I would have survived the trauma," Ron said with a small smile.  Harry gave a sad chuckle, not breaking his eye contact with his knees.

There was a long pause where both were trying to think of what to say.

"Harry, about what you…"

"Ron," Harry interrupted, "just…just ignore everything I just said.  I didn't mean it.  I was half-asleep and I didn't know what I was saying.  Really.  I don't…I don't think that."

"You don't need them, Har.  They were all horrible.  You have better family now," Ron said seriously.

"Yeah, a godfather and a pet dog in one," Harry joked weakly. 

"Harry, do you want to talk about…" Ron started cautiously.

"Ron, it was nothing, seriously," Harry interrupted firmly.  "Let's just go back to bed."

"We both know you're not going to go to sleep," Ron challenged.

"I will.  I'll go to sleep," Harry insisted, getting to his feet.

Ron reluctantly decided to give Harry the benefit of the doubt and followed him back to the bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later, Ron sat up.

"Harry, I've shared a dorm with you for five years now.  I can tell when you're asleep and when you're just faking it."

"How?" Harry asked curiously, turning over.

"That's not the point.  Have you been sleeping at all lately?" he asked incredulously.  "Never mind, don't answer that, I already know.  Why don't you have Snape get you a dreamless sleeping draught or something?"

"Because I don't need it," Harry said.  More quietly, he added, "and because they're addicting and because I grew immune to the only one Hr. Callahan will let me have in two days."

"Two days?" Ron asked incredulously. "That doesn't seem right."

"Well, I took so many different potions last year when I was sick, a lot of them sleeping potions, that Hr. Callahan reckons I've grown immune to some of the common ingredients," Harry confided.

"Does Sirius know about this?" Ron asked worriedly.

Harry sat up in bed and looked at Ron seriously. "No, and don't tell him.  It's not that bad.  You're just seeing me on a bad night."

"Harry, I really think you should tell him."

"He has enough on his mind without having to worry about something as stupid as a slight bit of insomnia," Harry argued.

"Bollocks," Ron said angrily, though his anger wasn't directed at Harry, "it's not insomnia.  You're forcing yourself to stay awake, aren't you?  To avoid the nightmares you've been having."

"No!" Harry said indignantly.

"Harry, I'm your best friend!  Please stop lying to me!  Tell me what's going on with you!" Ron begged.

Harry looked slightly taken aback.  "I'm not…I'm not lying…"

Ron cut him off. "You are, Harry, and you know it."

Harry stayed silent and looked out the window.

"Harry, talk to me.  Please."

"I…I can't," Harry said in a near-whisper. "I don't know what to say."

"How about starting off with what's wrong?" Ron suggested hopefully.

Harry shook his head miserably.  "I don't know what's wrong with me.  It's probably just a phase, something with all these potions I'm on for these stupid headaches."

"Harry…"

"Look, I'll try to figure out what's wrong and if I think of something I want to talk about, I'll come to you, okay?" Harry compromised.  "For now, let's just try to go to sleep.  I'm tired."

Ron sighed.  "Okay, fine.  As long as you promise to come talk to me if you need to."

"I will," Harry said firmly, lying back down.

Ron should have known he was lying. 

.

"I swear, if Weasley doesn't pass this, and I wasted all my valuable time…" Draco ranted quietly.

"All your valuable time that you would have otherwise spent doing what, may I ask?" Harry pointed out.

"That's not the point."

It was finally the day of Ron's test to get into Advanced Potions and the redhead had been nearly shaking with nervousness.  Harry and Draco were waiting outside Snape's lab.  Harry had reluctantly come, only for moral support for Ron.  When they had first arrived, he had made a point of avoiding Snape's gaze and answering any questions with short nods. 

"Shall we go for another peek?" Draco suggested.  Harry nodded.

The two boys crept over to the door and poked their heads in.  Ron had apparently finished his written part and was on to the practical portion of it. 

"Merlin's beard, Weasley!" Snape barked as Ron was about to add an ingredient, causing Ron to jump and nearly catch his hand on fire.  "Have you read the directions at all or have you just gotten your common sense surgically removed?" he asked with a sneer.  "What are you supposed to add next?"

"U-u-um, powdered hornblende?" Ron stammered nervously.

"Yes, and does the ingredient you hold in your hand _look_ like powdered hornblende?"

"I-it says powdered hornblende on the label," Ron said, pointing it out.

"That is not what I asked.  Ingredients can be mislabeled and you must be prepared for that," Snape said sternly, grabbing the jar from him and tapping the label with his wand, making it turn back to its real label.  "_This _is powdered hornblende, since you obviously can't figure it out for yourself," he said, thrusting a jar at him.

Ron snuck a peek at the door and Harry gave him a thumbs-up and a reassuring smile.  Ron gave him a shaky smile back and quickly returned to his potion. 

Draco and Harry left the door to, once again, pace impatiently. 

"Isn't that a little harsh with mislabeling the ingredients?" Harry asked. "We didn't have to do that on ours."

"Harsh?  It's downright _cruel_.  But it's really funny as long as it's Weasley in there and not me," Draco said with a smirk. 

Harry rolled his eyes.

It didn't take long for a dazed Ron to join them in the waiting room of the lab and collapse on the couch.

"Well?" Harry asked anxiously.

"He's grading the written and he won't let me know about the practical yet.  He'll be out in a few minutes," he said nervously.

A few minutes later, Snape emerged from the lab with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Weasley, I expect you to put all your effort into your work in my class or you will be kicked out faster than you can say Veritiserum, got it?"

"I'm in?" Ron asked incredulously.

"No, Weasley, I meant my knitting class," Snape said sarcastically.  Draco sniggered.  "Of course you're in if I expect you to attend my classes."

"Thank you, Professor.  I'll try really hard, I swear," Ron said in relief.

"We'll see," Snape said with an imperious look.

"See you later, Draco," Harry said as he and Ron made to leave.

"Harry," Snape said quickly, "wait.  I need to talk to you.  Weasley, run along."

Ron hesitated momentarily, looking to Harry, but then nodded and left, telling Harry to stop by later.

"I need to get home," Harry said, avoiding Snape's gaze. 

"Black will understand.  Draco, will you excuse us?"

Draco nodded and left the room, amazingly without any complaint.

As the door shut behind the blonde, Harry shifted nervously and tried not to fidget too much, reminding himself that he was supposed cold and unfeeling. 

"I really should be getting home," Harry insisted uncomfortably.

"Harry, sit down for a minute," Snape said gently.  Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Snape cut him off. "Your godfather won't mind."

Harry reluctantly sat down and was rather surprised when Snape pulled up a chair to sit across from him.

"Harry, tell me about the Dursleys," he said determinedly.

Harry's eyebrows shot up.  "What?" he asked in an unnaturally high voice.

"We can start wherever you want and if you don't know where to start, I have plenty of questions," Snape said, attempting to sound comforting, a feat difficult for the Potions master.

"Questions?" Harry choked.  He hadn't expected anyone to ever actually start this conversation and the fact that it was so real now terrified him.

"Yes," Snape said patiently. "Questions about what you went through at your relatives' house.  Why don't we start with the cupboard they kept you in?"

"My cupboard?" Harry asked dazedly.  This was all happening so fast and he wasn't sure he was ready to think about all this stuff again. "My cupboard was just my room, it-it isn't a big deal."

"Harry, normal people do not shut children in cupboards, especially when they have other perfectly fine rooms that are not in use," Snape said firmly.

"But I'm not a normal…" 

Harry trailed off and suddenly looked up at Snape with a different expression, one of hurt and anger.  He stood up abruptly.

"I have to go," he said sharply and started toward the door.

"Harry, what…" Snape started in confusion at the sudden turn of events.

Harry spun around with an angry expression.  "You don't care," he said shaking his head. "You're doing this because Sirius has been talking with Draco, or because Remus asked you to.  You don't care about me, you never have, and I don't need your fake sympathy and I DON'T need your help."

"Harry…" Snape started, but Harry had already slammed the door behind him. 

Snape sank down into his chair and put his head in his hands.  He had really screwed up this time and he wasn't sure if he could ever make things right.  And if he didn't make things right, he didn't want to think about what would happen to Harry.

**A/N: **Hey guys, I'm going to make some of these review responses a bit shorter than usual to try and get the chapter out quicker!  Just thought I'd give you a heads up.

**Wiccan PussyKat: **lol, I'm so glad you liked the chapter so much!  Lol, loved your little rant at the godfathers. I could almost see Sirius beginning to smirk at Sirius and then snap to attention and look guilty.  He's such a little kid.  They were mad, they were beyond upset, but they screwed up.  Really badly at that. Sirius obviously didn't realize the impact of his words at the time, but poor Harry had to bay the price. And Sev really messed up as well.  Harry hasn't really changed who he is, but he's so confused he's changed in other ways because he's just so lost.  Looking back at the 'flawed perfection' conversation, one might get a good idea of where Harry's at mentally right now.  Lol, don't worry, I love the ranting!  I feed off it.  I'm so glad to hear you say "as awful as their behaviour is sometimes, we can see where they're coming from."  I think I could kiss you.  (Don't worry, I won't, lol).  Sure they do stupid things and mess up and go overboard, but I'm glad you see that somewhere in all that mess they've created, they might have their reasons or good intentions or at least you can understand why they might act the way they do. I'm glad you're seeing that even though it's easy to be angry with the two godfathers, they're quite lost themselves and are not intending to hurt the boys.  Moving on, I must admit that writing Remus's rant was major fun and quite therapeutic.  Lol, that would be hilarious if Lucius was just like, "I want that amulet!!  It looks really good with my dress robes and I just can't find another one that looks so snazzy.  And my mum says it accents the color of my eyes."  Emerald eyes doesn't link the amulet to Harry for plot reasons, only symbolically.  The amulet protects and saves lives, and so does Harry.  Silver and green are Slytherin colors (the dragon is silver the eyes are green) and that was one of the reason those colors were chosen, but that connection with Slytherin is not important to the rest of the pot. I'll tell you that much.  As Snape said earlier in the fic, there were wards/alarms that would alert them when Lucius entered the property.  Sev does need to learn to apologize.  Harry deserves that much.  

**Eowyn of Ithilien: **I'm so glad you liked the chapter and hope that you like some of the others as much.  Lol, you know, I never noticed that before, with the whole Harry holding Draco thing until someone brought up that they were in a closet together.  Very symbolic. Lol.  I'm glad to appease you though.  Must admit I had fun writing that as well.  The little slasher in me was apparently edging its way to the surface without me realizing it.  Lol, buttery anger!  Glad you enjoyed it.  I can picture you rolling up your sleeves in fury and going off to try to find the Lighthouse to go after Sirius.  Hahaha, Harry and Draco stuck in a cupboard together and then running off into the sunset…hmm…down slasher down!  Man, I got to get control of myself I guess lol.  I figured Remus calls Sirius "Padfoot" more often than anything else so it wouldn't be abnormal for him to just slip and use the nickname at any old time, but I can see your point.  I never really saw it as a "term of friendly endearment" until you pointed it out, so I could definitely see what you mean.  Yeah, Sevvy's messed up pretty bad as well, but at least Siri's out of denial and you can stop threatening him for awhile.  I don't only test my dialogue in the mirror, but also just when I'm walking around thinking about my fic and dialogue strikes me and I have to say it aloud to feel it out, see if it seems right.  This might indicate that I have something wrong with me mentally, but I guess you've probably guessed that by now just by reading this fic.  Oh well!  skips along talking to herself in the voice of Snape  I do the same exact thing with my characters.  Especially in school when I'm bored.  I always think of different things throughout the day or random situations, both casual and intense, and think of how they'd react.  That's sort of how Recnac started.  Thinking, hmm…I wonder how they'd react if someone was dying…someone like…HARRY!!  Well, I think to be a writer you have to be a bit insane.  It's like having a bunch of characters running around in your head and putting them in different situations.  Glad you can relate. 

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Well, even if Lucius is a blatant asshole (excuse my French), it still must hurt for Draco that his father just dismissed him so easily, just like it still hurts Harry even though we all know the Dursleys are scum. I'm glad you see that Snape was angry because he was so upset. Lol, I do enjoy bringing up things and then making you all wait to see what they mean, or sometimes don't tell you at all until much much later.  It keeps you on your toes.  Well, be fair.  Sev and Siri both acted the same during this whole episode.  Everyone seems to be taking a side but they both screwed up royally and were both angry out of worry and parental instinct craziness. Like the Ron morph, btw. Lol. But writing Moony's rant was quite therapeutic I must admit. Sirius did finally understand what Remus was saying, it just took a bit longer for it to sink in. I'm sorry you thought the boys' reactions were off.  They were freaked out and had a tough night, that's all I can offer.  Harry's getting desperate now and is tired of being hurt so much.  The only way to keep himself from being hurt is to push people away.  Obviously, he isn't doing it with everyone, but Sev's been angry and cold with him, so Harry feels more justified in being angry and cold in return. Yeah, my beta's taken off for a bit, so I've been having a hard time catching some of my errors on my own, as I haven't had much time to look over them deeply with rapidly writing the rest of the chapters.  Sometimes it's hard to catch your own mistakes, you know?  Ah well, constructive criticism is good and helps me write better!  Some of what I'm doing will make more sense later. 

**Luinlothana: **Good observation about the attacks and stress.  Doesn't look like the theory pans out does it? I'm glad you like Harry's reaction at the end of the chapter. It seems that Sirius was able to better handle talking to Draco, probably since they've been through the same thing and it's easier to determine how to handle it.  Ooh, that's a good idea with the dream thing.  When I read that I rapidly looked to see if I could fit it in anywhere but I can't, unfortunately.  It's a cool idea though. True, Harry might show maturity just in the way he didn't recklessly try to play hero in that situation and put he and Draco into further danger.  I like that.  Lol, that's so funny that you're thinking of AU for my fic.  Are you kidding?  Of course I missed you!  I do read through all my reviews and I notice when people are missing, especially my top reviewers such as yourself.  Hahaha, no I don't have someone read through my reviews! Lol, I love them to death and read every one. Oh and JKR actually did confirm that Blaise Zabini is a guy. 

**Dana (SerpentandtheLion): **Yeah, Sev really needs to know how much he hurts Harry when he reverts to his cold self. You're right, Harry has never felt like he's the most important person in anyone's life.  He's barely felt needed at all.  I like you articulating my points, so never fear.  That way I know that somebody's understanding what I'm trying to say!  I will make sure PK tells us all about it when it happens in August so we can all live vicariously through her.****

**Savoy Truffle**: I'm so thrilled to have made you cry!  Yay! Lol, really?  I act out things from my story too, usually so I have a better idea of how to write them. I also practice dialogue and such, which might mean I'm a bit crazy, but oh well. I don't think Siri or Harry will be going to the Black House any time in this story, too many bad memories there for Siri.  How do I think of the characters? You mean how do I see them or how do I figure out how to make them act? Any particular characters you have in mind?

**ImaginaryFriendless: **wow! I love the long review!  Sev should have been more mature, but we've always known he has a bad temper and Harry and Draco scared him to death with their reckless behavior. I'm glad you can sort of understand where Sirius was coming from.  They both said some stupid things, but they're trying to fix them now.  Sirius wants to fix things, but he's so afraid of saying the wrong thing and screwing things up with Harry even more, that he needs all the advice he can get from Remy before hand. No, Harry's headaches are not related to the pendant, I'll tell you that much. Lol, yeah, the movie portrayed Draco as very wimpy.  I though it was funny, but not really true to canon.  (my friend was dressed as Draco at the premiere and kept exclaiming "It's just an act to fool you all" everytime Draco was being all whimpery)

**Howl **(well, thank you for reviewing!  I love long reviews!  I'm so thrilled you like the H/D friendship in the fic and so happy that you like Snape.  He's the most difficult character to balance. I'm so glad you like my fics! Lol, I always thought it would be great to have Sev around a little kid, and Anna was just the one for the job.  I'm glad to give you mood fluctuations as you read this. It's my goal! Of course I can't answer good v. evil questions.  I love Snape too!  Don't you just want to give him a hug, and then run very very fast before he realizes what you just did?  That would be awesome! 

**tessbomb65 **(I'm glad you like how I'm dealing with Harry's reactions to the abuse. Lol, I'm so happy you were scared at the beginning of the chapter!  I've done my job properly then.), **Dea Puella,  M0rbidity, CentralsPrincess15 **(It wasn't all Snape's fault, but he did screw up royally. He thought Snape could help Harry because Harry talked to Snape a lot the previous year and confided in him.  Snape was the first to find out about the abuse as well.), **voxenking, Lourdes **(If you look to when Sirius is telling Harry to go to Snape Manor, that's when Draco floos in.  That's how Harry realizes what's going on and decides to go over to Snape Manor), **azntgr01, lmill123 **(yeah, they sort of screwed up royally.  Remy would be a good person to take them in for a bit, but it would really just be postponing the conversations that need to be had and widen the gap between the boys and their godfathers.), **lonlyheart, Erin **(give Harry a break?  Lol, what kind of story would that be?), **Stahchild **(well, Sirius is out of his denial now and he's really trying to figure out what to do), **AvengingKitty, megsleeps **(thanks, I'm sure PK appreciated those links!), **Kfelton, kamahpfan **(I'm so glad you liked it.  I'm glad you like angst because there's a lot coming up.  I've taken a night class in psychology before, but we didn't really get into a lot of this stuff.  I'm mostly taking this from personal experiences, experiences of people I know, and just putting myself in Harry's place and thinking of how I'd react.), **harryandginnyforever, lyss33, A-Brighter-Dawn **(I'm glad you liked that line.  I rather liked it myself), **Lorie1101 **(lol, yay! I'm always glad to get people emotional. It lets me know I'm doing my job properly.  Draco was in a bit of shock at the time and otherwise would have taken some blame for himself.), **Avea **(Oh, that sounds like a sad song. I've never heard it), **MissLilyStar **(Just so you know, JKR said Harry's not going to become an animagus, but good idea anyways. I hope your friend got through what they were going through. I know! Nobody updates these days!), **corinnetkn24, athenakitty, Mormon Girl **(thank you! FYI a Mary Sue is an original character who's annoyingly perfect and does things like fixes house rivalries and is loved by/ is friends with everyone.  I'm glad you like Kota and my portrayal of Snape. Thanks!), **kneh13, hpfanchrissy1502 **(I hope I can write a book someday, that would be my dream come true), **Alaranth-88 **(I know this one.  Bill Weasley's two years older than Charlie, who's two years older than Percy, who's two years older than the twins who are two years older than Ron. So when Harry's fifteen, Bill is 23.)**, Shadowarwen **(yup, those two screwed up a bit. The Order definitely knew that Lucius had been there.  Earlier in the fic, I said (through Sev's thoughts) that the Order had set up alarms to see if Lucius entered the house. The only ones to leave were Sev, Siri, and Remy.), **Soft Willow, lost angel92, jessebelle, Marci018** (Yeah, that makes sense.  If Lucius wasn't looking for them, he might overlook where they might be hidden. Glad you liked the chapter!), **Siri Kat, Madame Moony **(cowers lol, yes he deserves better, but it's so fun to torture him!), **starwander, DreamersDisease **(I'm so glad I made you cry!), **sou85a, lilynjamesAAF, monica85 **(not a problem at all.  Tears are good), **blulily07 ** (yay! Thank you! Well, I updated early!), **Earthmom, Wynjara, Musicstarlover, Heather **(I'm so glad you like it! And um, I only torture the people I love.), **Lea Black **(thanks! Glad you like Flawed! Harry's not going to make it easy for anyone to help him, but especially Snape), **Kjkit, Von **(No, Harry's always my favorite to torture, so never fear in that department. Yeah, stability's definitely not something he's been getting from Snape lately. He's really screwing with Harry's head, even if he doesn't mean to.), **Dana (MP) **(the climax of this fic is my fave part), **Angel74 **(yup, just another bump in the road, but as you said, definitely an important bump. I'm so glad you thought the reactions of the three adults were in character!  Draco and Harry are alike in many ways, which is one reason they're so protective of each other.  Me update?  _You_ update!! I'm going crazy waiting for the next chapters of either fic!), **yellowpages **(Harry's in a bad place right now, and you're right, even though he's acting a bit uncharacteristic, it makes sense, or at least I hope so. Draco was a bit in shock at the time, and otherwise would have took some responsibility for himself.), **Myr Halcyon **(Oh and more clues in the future, but please don't stop telling me your theories!  That's my fave part of it all! Lol, I've heard the Ron=Dumbledore theory and it makes no sense to me.  I guess I just can't picture Ron being all sage and wise. You'd probably give Snape a heart attack if you called him a teddy bear to his face.  Thanks so much for the wonderful compliments!), **torifire126 **(yeah, they found it), **ThreeToedSloth **(Both Sev and Sirius screwed up and now Harry just can't handle it anymore and is pushing them away. Le sigh), **Phoenixmarauder, DADAGinny **(Thank you!), **Tati1 **(Well, Snape's not exactly a counselor.  He doesn't really know what he's doing just as Sirius doesn't either.  They're both trying to figure out this whole parenting thing as they go along.), **Liz **(I never felt Sirius changed drastically in the books.  He was just a bit nutters in the third one.  He's a bit like a big kid.), **Nadia Greenleaf, Seta Kaede, James Milamber, Nation El-Diablo, Shawn Pickett, Wren Truesong, NathanPostmark, Ashaera, Howling Wolf 22, shadowsfriend, Arsenal, Nemati, MsHobgoblin, dominy **(I'm glad you're seeing that Harry's turning into how Snape used to be.  He's caught in the same place Snape was, so Snape should be the best person to help him, he just needs to wake up and smell the coffee), **therese, hedwigs-biggest-fan **(thanks! I'm glad you liked it! And hey, look, I did update early this week!), **EriEka127, Toras **(Thank you so much. It means a lot to have someone with some authority on the subject let me know that the two boys' reactions were right on. Many people were saying they were out of character, and it's nice to know that I'm not off like some seem to think.), **Hp-Azn, texasjeanette **(lol, yeah, Sev can be frustratingly dense at times), **Kiki **(lol, um my secret?  I don't really have one, I just live by the rule that you can't tell your readers what to feel, you have to make them feel it.  I write what makes me feel, and hope that others feel what I'm feeling.  Does that make any sense? Thank you for the support!)**, SillyGillie, anonymous3 **(I know the answers to one of the questions! JKR has confirmed that Blaise Zabini is a boy), **musicgal, Shadow Wolf2418 **(lol, you want to molest Remus, what?  Lol, Just kidding.  He's a major cutie.), **lasach **(wow, thanks for reviewing mine! Sorry it's stressing you out, but I did warn that it would be more angsty.  Sorry!), **BabyBlu4, Gypsy t. Potter **(thanks for posting my fic on your site!  I left a comment in your guestbook but when I sent it, it went sort of funky.  Did you receive it?), **Lupin123 **(Remus would be a good person for Harry to talk to, but he also realizes that Harry needs to establish a trust with his godfather more than Remus who isn't around as often.), **David, the ruler of all **(lol, nice penname! Thank you! Lol, you guys confuse me so much, you tell me you like the fic and then say I'm being too mean to Harry.  So confusing…), **acciodanrad9 **(The boys didn't deserve that much yelling, perhaps, but they really freaked out their godfathers by being so reckless with their lives when they're both always in danger. I'm glad you liked both chapters!), **Thunder's Shadow, Ashley **(Thank you so much!), **ChildOfDarkness **(lol, I'm glad you enjoy all the angst. I'm getting many people saying I'm too mean, but I'm glad I can make you happy lol. I'm pretty positive Harry's going to die, because in all the interviews I've read, she said if she makes an 8th book, it's not going to be a novel but one of those random school book type ones for charity, and the prophecy is worded to allow it.), **walker-of-the-shadow-path **(I'm glad you gave in and read them and am happy that you like them.), **mickeymoose, UnlimitedUnknown **(HAHAHA!! I'm thrilled that you and your friend are so fond of my fic! Thanks for the awesome review!)


	18. Help

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone! **Important! **Marci018 has been so completely awesome as to have started a yahoo group for me! I know some people have been thinking this fic's getting a bit too angsty, so I've cut out a lot of stuff and created an alternate ending for this chapter. I took out a whole subplot, basically. Anyways, the uncut version is at my yahoo group. The uncut version for this chapter shows the Weasley parents' attempt at a talk with Harry and an alternate ending to the chapter and will continue with the uncut version from this point on. On the site, I'll be posting deleted scenes from both fics, and eventually an alternate ending for Recnac where Voldie never attacks and therefore, Harry doesn't get cured of the cancer. There will be chats and polls about my fics (you guys can talk about your theories and such) and other HP stuff. Also, WE NEED ART!! We need someone to please design the home page of the website and any other fan art would be welcomed!! If you're interested, email me. PLEASE!!! You can also email me any ideas for polls or just ideas for the group in general. So, please everyone join and send me ideas! The link and my email address are at my Author's page since isn't being cooperative in letting me put it in this chapter.

BTW, thanks to my wonderful beta Senri who helped me figure out how to edit this chapter and helped me pick the ending to post here. Senri, you rock. I'm glad you're back.

Also, fanficnet's being really screwy right now so I have no idea how this chapter's going to come out.

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Draco took a calming breath as he looked at the fireplace. He couldn't think of somewhere he'd less want to go, except for maybe to wherever his father was. He sighed and took a pinch of Floo powder.

"I can't believe you're doing this," his godfather said from behind him.

"Neither can I, but he needs all the help he can get. Obviously neither of us can get him to talk enough to really help him, and Sirius would rather treat him like a piece of china than try to get him to talk about what happened," Draco said with a sigh. Even if he had known about Sirius's plans to talk to Harry, he would have done this anyway, since the man was just taking far too long.

"Well, I'm proud of you. This shows a lot of loyalty and bravery," Snape said.

They both glanced at each other and shuddered.

"Ugh, like a cross between a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor. Please allow me to go vomit," Draco said dramatically.

Snape smirked. "Later. Or have you decided to back out of your little errand?"

Draco made a face at his godfather. "No, I haven't."

"Good. Just remember that these are Harry's friends too, so he probably wouldn't appreciate you making any degrading comments about their home or other such insults."

Draco sighed. "Yeah, yeah." He threw the powder into the fire and stepped in and reluctantly said, "the Burrow."

Moments later, he stepped gracefully through into the small, cluttered room. The twins were in the room, along with their father. The three looked up and froze in shock as they realized who their visitor was.

"Who's here?" Ginny asked excitedly as she popped into the room. When she saw the blonde, her eyebrows shot up.

"Hi, is…Ron here?" he asked, nearly calling him _Weasley_. The twins shot each other a perplexed look. Everyone was too shocked to answer him and Draco resisted the urge to squirm under their stares.

Mrs. Weasley popped her head in and saw Draco. She froze momentarily but quickly recovered and walked in.

"Hello dear, if you're trying to find Harry, I'm afraid he's not here," she said warmly.

"Actually, I was trying to find Ron," he said awkwardly. He felt extremely guilty speaking with the woman he had made fun of so often to get a rise out of her sons. He glanced nervously over at the twins who seemed to have not forgotten that fact. The two were looking at him coldly.

"He's up in his room. I'll show you up," she said, gesturing for him to follow. He nodded and quickly caught up to her to escape the room where he was so unwelcome.

"I heard what you did for Harry. That was very brave of you. Sirius tells me you two are friends now," she said on their way up.

"Yes ma'am," he said politely.

"You don't have to be so formal, dear. Just call me Mrs. Weasley like Harry does. I've told him he's always welcome to invite you over here, and I'm sure he will once the rest of my family gets over their grudges." She dropped her voice. "Weasley men are very stubborn, you know. It takes them forever to get over a grudge, but they eventually will," she said with a bright chuckle, as she patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

Draco looked at her in fascination. He had never met such a warm woman. He knew now what Harry meant whenever he described Mrs. Weasley as someone you'd want to adopt you after spending a few minutes with. He wished his own mother had been so affectionate and approachable. He felt a pang of jealousy toward Ron, something that slightly scared him.

"You know, Harry's really like one of the family. As long as you're friends with him, you're welcome here."

"Thank you," he said graciously, thinking of something nice to tell the woman, something he didn't know if he'd ever bothered with. "You know, Harry said your house is the best house he's ever been in."

"Did he really?" Mrs. Weasley asked with a delighted smile.

Draco nodded. He wished he could go on and tell the woman all the compliments Harry had ever said just to make her happy, but felt that telling her such things as Harry saying she was the closest thing to a mother he'd ever had would be betraying Harry's trust. He suddenly shook himself mentally, wondering what the hell he was doing. Harry was definitely right, there was something about this place that made you feel like you were home.

They stopped at a door that said "Ronald's Room" on it. Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door.

"Ron, you have a visitor," she called.

The door flew open seconds later and Ron froze in seeing Draco there.

"Well, I'll leave you two boys to talk. It was nice to meet you Draco dear," she said before turning down the stairs.

"It was nice to meet you too," he called after her before turning back to the slightly stunned Weasley boy.

"What are you doing here?" Ron hissed.

"I need to talk to you," he said non-chalantly.

"What on earth about?" he asked incredulously.

"It's about Harry."

Ron looked slightly taken aback.

"What about Harry?" he asked suspiciously.

"The way he's been acting ever since the thing with his uncle," Draco said bluntly. "Now can I come in?"

Ron looked indecisive for a moment before standing back to let the blonde in, shutting the door behind him.

Draco looked around at the brilliant orange room. It was tiny and he thought of a million insults within seconds, but held back from saying even a single one. He thought of how Harry described the Weasleys and realized that if he ever wanted to come back, he couldn't revert to the old Draco Malfoy ways. It scared him that he'd even want to come back. He sat on the edge of one of the two beds.

Ron looked at him suspiciously. "What, no comments about my small room?" he asked coldly.

"It's cool how your parents let you put up all your personal stuff. Mine was more for show. You're lucky you can do things like paint it the color of your Quidditch team, even if they'll never make it to the cup," he said in his usual drawling voice.

Ron wasn't sure how to respond to that. He was almost certain that Draco Malfoy had just given him some form of a compliment.

"But I'm not here to talk about your decorating or Quidditch teams, so let's get down to why I _am_ here," he said superciliously. His expression then turned more casual, more worried. "Please tell me you've noticed the way Harry's been acting lately?"

"He's been avoiding the Burrow lately ever since my parents tried to strike up a chat with him about all the stuff he's been going through, but yeah, I've noticed," he said, taking a seat in his desk chair.

"So you've noticed that he hasn't been getting sleep?" Draco asked, skeptical of Ron's observational skills.

"Yes. And how he always looks sad even when he's trying to look happy," Ron added.

Draco nodded. "And how he's shut himself off from everyone, especially Sirius."

"Yeah, I noticed that. Has he been backing down from disagreements with you too? Just agreeing with you when you know he disagrees?" Ron asked in concern.

"Yeah, and he flinches whenever people touch him or even look like they're going to touch him. And has he spent the night with you at all since it happened?" he asked.

"Yeah, I found him reading in the bathroom at four in the morning the first time and the second time he..." Ron paused, unsure if he could trust Draco with the information.

"He had a nightmare?" Draco offered.

Ron nodded.

"Well, you know he stayed at my house that night. Now don't you ever tell Harry that I told you this, but he had some kind of panic attack with the nightmare he had. I think it's pretty obvious he hasn't been sleeping much ever since."

"Merlin," Ron sighed. "I don't think he's been eating much either."

"I agree. Now listen, I know a bit of what Harry's going through."

Ron looked at him awkwardly. "Your father?"

"Not anywhere near as bad and if you tell a soul I'll kill you. I'm only telling you this to help Harry," Draco said warningly.

"I won't tell a soul," Ron said truthfully.

"Well, anyway, what happened with Harry's uncle was not good. He was at a point where he thought he was safe, with people he thought he was safe with, and his uncle still got him. I'm sure he always thought that if his godfather or any of his magical friends were there, then they could protect him, but he was proven wrong. His feeling of safety is compromised and it'll probably be a while before he can start to relax again. Not to mention he's probably as embarrassed as all hell that you all saw that, especially you, his best friend, and Ginny, since it's obvious he fancies her."

"Yeah, try getting Harry to admit that," Ron muttered.

"Anyway," Draco continued, "some things aren't quite falling into place. Harry has had this kind of thing happen to him before without this sort of reaction, right?"

"Yeah, back when nobody knew and he was desperately trying to keep it a secret."

"Something more is wrong, like the anxiety with Sirius, and certain things with his behavior that doesn't quite fit. It's possible this was just one thing too many and Harry's passed his breaking point, but I think his uncle might've said something to him. He and Harry were alone in the kitchen, right? Sev said that Sirius told him he couldn't hear what Harry's uncle was shouting, but he said there was definitely some yelling in there."

"Yeah, I heard his uncle bellowing on about something, but it was muffled by the door and there was so much other noise with everyone trying to get in," Ron said regretfully.

"He must have said something to Harry," Draco said grimly.

"Like what?" Ron asked worriedly.

"Who knows? He's been tormenting Harry since he was dumped on their doorstep; he's probably become quite talented at knowing what Harry's weaknesses are," Draco said knowingly.

"Personal experience?" Ron asked cautiously. Draco looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You saw my father publicly disown me and cast the Cruciatus curse on me for embarrassing him, what do _you_ think?" he snapped sarcastically.

"Sorry," Ron said. Draco rolled his eyes. "No really, I'm sorry. That's gotta be rough."

"Yeah, well what would you know of it?" Draco asked bitterly. "You've got the wonder family. I bet your father's never hit you in your entire life and your mother seems to want to keep all her little babies under her wing forever."

Ron glared at him. "Don't insult my family, Malfoy," he warned.

"Does it _sound_ like I'm insulting your family, _Weasel_? If that's your definition of an insult no wonder your comebacks are so weak," Draco said haughtily. "And don't call me Malfoy. I'm not part of that family anymore, or has your disturbingly weak brain allowed you to forget that already?"

Ron jumped up. "All right, let's just get this straight. I don't care what Harry thinks, but just because you've suddenly got a different last name and chickened out of cursing Harry, does not make you a different person in my book. And no matter if Harry thinks you're now this great guy, I do not and _will_ not believe it until you prove to me that you've changed. I don't like you and I know you don't like me, but I'm friends with Harry and you are also his friend, though Merlin knows why. Now we need to be civil for Harry's sake, especially now when the situation is so important. We're here about Harry so let's not get into a stupid argument right now, agreed?"

"Agreed," Draco said with a smirk. "Nice speech by the way."

"Oh shut the hell up," Ron muttered, slumping back down into his chair. "So do you have any ideas of what to do about all this?"

"We need to find out what that bastard said to him. Unfortunately, the only person who knows what that was is Harry, and he seems to be pretty good at keeping the secrets he wants to," Draco said with a sigh.

"No kidding, the only time he ever lets anything slip is when he breaks down and that's happened all of, what? One time? Maybe twice?" Ron said hopelessly.

"Well, then that's what we'll have to do," Draco said regretfully. Ron looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you suggesting that we try to make Harry have a break down?" he asked incredulously. "Yeah, that'll really help things," he said sarcastically.

"You know more than anyone how much crap he's gone through, Weasley. Do you really think it's a good time that he's only come close to confronting it once or twice? Everyone needs to let it out every once in awhile, but Harry won't let himself. Did you ever think that maybe the reason he starts blabbing his secrets when he can't control his emotions is because he needs to let them out? He needs help and we can't help him if we don't know precisely what the problem is," Draco said confidently.

"So what, we lock him in a room and start yelling at him until he cries?" Ron asked, looking at Draco as if he were insane.

"We want him to have an _emotional_ breakdown, Weasley, not a mental one. Though locking him in a room is a good start."

"You're insane."

"Do you want to help him or not?"

"You're bloody mad."

"Are you in or am I going to have to try to do this myself?"

Ron sighed. "Fine. But if Harry ends up hating us for this, I'll kill you."

"Aw, but then we wouldn't get to have these lovely little chats."

"Shut it, Malfoy."

"Don't call me that," Draco snapped.

"Well what the hell do you want me to call you?"

"Your highness. Your majesty. Something along that line would be good."

"You're so annoying!"

"I try," Draco said with his famous smirk.

Ron took a few calming breaths. "So what exactly do you suggest we do?"

"I know some good dark curses that have been known to get people to talk," Draco said, twirling his wand. Ron shot him a death glare. "Okay, so we're not in a humorous mood. All right, we'll just have to work on him individually. I think if we try going to talk to him together, he'll feel like we're ganging up on him. You'll probably have more luck than me since you've known him longer and he trusts you more."

Ron looked proud at this, but Draco chose to ignore it.

"We'll just each have to try to get him alone and make sure he can't just run away. I think the best approach might be just to start talking about his uncle and keep asking him questions about it. That seems to upset him enough. Maybe you know some guesses as to what his uncle might have said that you can ask him about if that doesn't work."

"I can't believe I'm going to do this," Ron groaned.

"Well, start believing it. It's going to be hard, but somebody's got to do it, and everyone else is taking far too long."

"I just hope we're not too late," Ron said worriedly.

"We're not. I don't believe in a 'too late' unless a person's dead. Of course, with Harry, even _that's_ not too late."

.

The first night on Hr. Callahan's potions had been blissful. No dreams and a full night of sleep, even after all the stuff that had happened at Malfoy Manor that day. Harry had been dreading the end of the week when they'd be over. The second night however, the potion didn't work. Absolutely no effect. Harry had been really disappointed and owled the healer, who encouraged him not to give up and to keep trying the potions. The night after Ron spent the night, the potions started working again.

That's when the problem occurred.

It was sort of how Hr. Callahan had predicted; Harry appeared to have become immune to several ingredients in the potion. Unfortunately, it only made the potion half-ineffective.

He knew something was wrong even right after he took the potion. Usually, after taking it, his mind would go blissfully blank and he would feel very tired. He felt tired, all right, but his mind continued running like normal. He tried to fight the pull of potion-induced sleep, but quickly failed.

That night, he was hit with a constant stream of nightmares that grew increasingly violent and frightening as they went on. When he couldn't wake up, he began to believe they were real and became so panicked he finally was able to rip himself from sleep, but even then, the potion's effects were so strong that he couldn't open his eyes, move, or make sound for nearly fifteen minutes.

When he finally wrenched himself into a more awake state, he had been hysterical, unable to stop crying or shaking. He had tried to get down to Sirius's room for the comfort of his presence that night, despite the risk of being caught again, but the potion kept him from being able to walk and he had nearly collapsed after two steps, barely making it back to his own bed. The rest of the night was spent desperately battling against the potion that was trying to drag him back to a horror-filled sleep.

After that, he quickly decided there was no way he'd risk trying another, despite Hr. Callahan's previous instructions to keep trying the different ones. No potions would mean little to no sleep, but anything was better than being trapped in his nightmares.

.

"Hi Sev," Laura greeted as she stumbled out of the fireplace, setting down her daughter. "Hi Draco. I have to go out of town on short notice and I was wondering if you could possibly watch over some things," she nodded at Anna behind her head so the little girl couldn't see and get too excited about the idea, "while I'm gone. If not, it's no problem, I can get someone else."

"No need for that. We can watch her," Sev said as Anna hugged his legs adoringly before running over to Draco. "Or, do you think maybe we could get Harry to? Like last time. You said it would do him some good, right?"

"I'm sorry Sev," Laura said regretfully. "As much as I want to help Harry in any way I can, you've seen how exhausted he is. I just can't leave Anna under his care when he might fall asleep. And actually, the last time I asked him, he seemed reluctant to do it."

"Did he say why?" Draco asked in confusion. "He normally loves baby…" he paused as Anna blinked up at him, "er…watching after your things."

"No. He eventually said yes, but when I dropped Anna off, he looked almost nervous or something," Laura said with a frown.

"Harry always looks nervous now a day," Draco said sadly.

Snape, on the other hand, suddenly remembered Nott's words when the two had fought, about Harry becoming like his uncle. He wouldn't be surprised if Harry had let that ignorant comment under his skin. Somebody needed to talk to him, but Harry was avoiding Snape Manor ever since they had last spoken.

"Where are you off to anyway?" Draco asked distractedly as Anna tugged his shirt, demanding to be picked up. "It seems you've been needing to leave town a lot lately."

Laura smiled at the blonde. "Never you mind, Draco. Just some business I have to take care of. I'll be back around seven or so and thank you so much for this."

"You're welcome as always, and shall we plan on having you for dinner?" Snape asked casually, now much more comfortable in asking Laura over since their first date.

"I'd love to, and we'll skip the bonfire this time," she made her usual joke.

"Bonfire! Bonfire!" Anna squealed excitedly.

"Who knew my daughter was such a pyromaniac?" Laura said with a chuckle.

Anna grinned proudly, having no idea what a pyromaniac was.

"And proud of it too," Snape pointed out.

Laura laughed and kissed Snape on the cheek before saying her farewells and leaving.

"You know, I'd coo and say how cute that was, but the whole situation's really far too disturbing," Draco said cheekily.

"Kissing's gross," Anna announced. "When are you and my mum going to get married?"

Snape glowered at both of them, causing Anna to burst out in giggles. Snape walked out, head held high, trying to hold on to the last scraps of his dignity.

.

Harry was sitting on the couch staring at a book. He was trying to read some Muggle book Kota had given him a while ago to get his mind off what had been happening lately. Sirius was off with Remus again, probably trying to figure out how to deal with him, since Harry had been avoiding him ever since the whole godson swapping thing the day before. Harry knew Sirius had been trying to get him alone, but Harry was still trying to put his distancing people plan in action, and so each time he sensed the man trying to get him alone, he'd slip out of the house or go take a shower or something similar. He felt a bit bad about it, but didn't believe Sirius really _wanted _to talk to him about things. He felt he was doing them both a favor. Of course, it made things a bit lonely, especially knowing Sirius wasn't in the house at all. He kept telling himself this was what was supposed to happen, but couldn't help missing his godfather and wondering if he was going to stop trying.

Suddenly he heard an unfamiliar ringing.

He had to search around the room a bit before finding the telephone Sirius and Remus had installed but never used.

"Hello?"

"Harry? It's Hermione," came the familiar voice over the phone.

"'Mione? Hey, how are you?" he asked in surprise, thankful to hear the comforting voice of his friend.

"Bored out of my mind."

"The last time _I_ said that you told me to study to pass the time," Harry reminded her, smiling slightly.

"Oh shut it Harry, I need a break from the books and I've already finished all my homework," she whined. "Do you want to come over?"

"Really? Okay, let me just leave a note for Sirius."

"Where is he?"

"He said he had to talk to Remus about something, but who knows what they've been talking for practically the entire day about," Harry said, trying to sound casual, as he scribbled a note.

There was a long pause.

"Harry, are you all right? Is something the matter?" Hermione asked suspiciously, picking up on his sad tone. Harry closed his eyes briefly and put on a cheerful voice.

"Huh? No, nothing's the matter. I'm just a bit tired. I stayed up far too late last night," he lied. He had had a rough night, that was for sure, just not for the reason he told Hermione. He briefly thought back to the previous night's potion fiasco and shuddered. He definitely wouldn't be taking that again.

"All right," she said skeptically. "Well, my address is 27 Hurtsford Place."

"Alright, see you in a second," Harry said before hanging up the phone.

Harry put the note on the kitchen table before going through the fire to Hermione's Muggle home, glad to have an excuse to get away from the loneliness of the empty house.

He was met by the bushy-haired girl who smiled fondly as Harry sheepishly picked himself off the floor after tripping over a log in the fireplace. As soon as he climbed out, the fireplace returned to its original size.

Hermione hugged him hello and looked at him searchingly.

"Harry, are you sure you're all right? Did something happen?" she asked intuitively. He hadn't seen her since he and Draco had been caught at Malfoy Manor

"'Mione, nothing happened really. I'm just tired, that's all, really," he said with a convincing smile.

She nodded, deciding to drop it, and gestured for him to follow her into the kitchen.

"Is Ron coming?" Harry asked as Hermione grabbed a box of goldfish crackers out of the cupboard.

"Who knows," she said with a chuckle as she and Harry both dug their hands into the box. "As soon as we got the fire connected he started popping in here constantly without even warning me. I've been trying to teach him how to call first, but he doesn't seem to like the telephone." She paused to eat a handful of goldfish. "Besides, it's been forever since I spent any quality time with you," she said with a smile. Harry smiled softly.

"You poor thing," he said putting a hand over his heart. Hermione shook her head and tossed a cracker at his head.

"Want the grand tour?" she asked. Harry nodded and followed Hermione out of the kitchen with the box of goldfish.

As they walked around the house, Hermione pointing out each room, their conversation rolled around to Hermione's relationship with Ron.

"It's a great thing to fall for a friend. I guess we know each other so well that there's no risk of unwanted surprises of character, you know? It's like how you liked Cho and thought she was great. Then you realized that wasn't true, but it came as a complete surprise and if you had been dating her at the time, you would have ended up with some psycho girlfriend. But with Ron, I know him so well I know that the person I that I'm dating is the person I want to be dating; it's not a front or anything," she explained as they reached her room. Harry nodded along as he looked around at all the pictures she had framed. Muggle shots of Hermione and her family through the years and wizarding ones of the famous trio. Harry picked up one of Hermione and Ron dancing at the ball and smiled fondly as his two best friends slowly turned to the music.

"Yeah, I think that's the best way, the friend thing first, I mean. Especially for me. That way, I would know that it wasn't all about the scar and the whole defeating Voldemort thing," he said with a slight cringe at the thought.

Hermione smiled triumphantly, having led Harry exactly where she wanted. "Somebody who you've known awhile. Maybe someone you've trusted before finishing Voldemort off for good, right?"

Harry cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "Yeah. Right."

"Somebody, like Ginny, for instance?" she said with a smirk. Harry blushed crimson and pretended to examine some of Hermione's book titles on her shelves. "Harry?" she prompted. "Come on I already know. You can talk to me about it."

Harry sighed and sat down on the edge of Hermione's bed, setting the goldfish box on her nightstand.

"Well, yeah, somebody like Ginny I guess," he muttered.

"So, what are you going to do about that?" she asked eagerly, leaning against her desk.

Harry looked up at her in confusion. "What?"

"Well you've got to take a step to get you two together. You know, like telling her that you fancy her or something?"

Harry looked away. "I can't do that, 'Mione."

"Sure you can, Harry. It's easier than it looks and completely worth it," she protested.

"No, 'Mione. I mean I can't date Ginny. It wouldn't work. It would be better if she was with someone else who she'd be happy with," he said quietly.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about Harry? You two are perfect for each other! She's fancied you forever! She'd be happy with _you_!"

"Hermione, you don't understand," Harry insisted with a pained expression.

The bushy-haired girl threw her hands up in frustration. "You're right, Harry, I don't. I don't understand it at all. You fancy her, you know she's mad about you, and you say you can't be with her? How does that make any sense?" Hermione asked, beginning to get upset. She couldn't comprehend why Harry was always making decisions that would prevent his own happiness when he deserved it so much.

"I'll mess things up with her. She deserves better. She deserves someone who doesn't have so much baggage," he said with sad resignation. "Besides, the Weasleys were the first real family I had. If I date Ginny, when I screw things up, I'll be losing even more than just her, and I don't think I could handle that."

"The Weasleys will always love you," Hermione said intently. Harry just shook his head sadly.

"No. With some people, love will always be conditional. _Your_ parents will love you no matter what, even if you mess up, but I don't have that, Hermione! You think that when Ginny ends up hating me the Weasleys will still welcome me into their home? No! Sure, right now everybody's saying, 'Oh Harry, you can always come to us. We'll always love you,' but that's because I haven't done anything too wrong yet. I just defeated the Dark Lord so everyone's happy with me. It's going to be hard enough keeping _that_ from fading away too quickly without me taking stupid risks that could end it all sooner. I don't want to lose them!" he cried.

Hermione gaped at him.

"Harry, is that how you really feel? That no one loves you unconditionally?" she asked in shock.

Harry sighed and shook his head sadly. "It's a fact, 'Mione," he said grimly. "It doesn't bother me though," he quickly lied.

"What about Sirius, or the Stensons, or me?" she asked wildly.

"Don't be offended, 'Mione. You're the best friend a guy could have and you've stood by me through a lot, but everyone has their limit. Trust me, you're going to get sick of me one day, and you won't want me around. The Stensons are the same. They're great and they treat me like one of them, but I_ did_ cure Mr. Stenson's cancer, so they're all enthused about me at the moment. But they've already let it slip before that they feel they hardly know me. I mean, I'm just some boy that they sort of got stuck with last summer, you know? But, they can't stay pleased with me forever. And Sirius…Sirius thinks he loves me for me but he really loves me because of my father. He still kids himself that I'm like him. I look the same and do similar things, so Sirius has himself trapped in this delusion that I'm somebody I'm not. And as soon as I make a mistake, he's going to realize that I'm not the great person my dad was. I mean I guess he'll figure it out eventually, but the longer it takes for him to do that, the longer I have with him, and I don't want to let go yet," Harry rambled, twisting the bottom of his shirt up in his hands and staring blankly at his knees.

Hermione looked at him aghast. "Even Ron?" she asked numbly, just above a whisper. Harry buried his head in his hands.

"Oh God, especially Ron. He's got to be so sick of me now after having to baby-sit me for the past few months. You too, Hermione, I'm so sorry, I've gotten in the way so much lately. I know you two have been going out of your way to try to include me in stuff, but you really don't have to. You really don't have to let me tag along everywhere. I don't want to be a burden and I…." Harry blurted out, speaking very quickly before he could even censor himself. Hermione interrupted him before he could continue.

"Harry, stop!" she shouted, cutting of his rant. He looked up with a puzzled expression. A cloud of sadness came over him when he came to the false realization that Hermione didn't want to listen to him talk anymore. After all, it was the first time he had really shared what he was feeling about this with anyone, and he now kicked himself for doing it. He looked away in shame and began to stand.

"Er…sorry about that. I'm just going to go now," he muttered.

"No, Harry, we need to talk," she said holding up a hand. She walked over and sat next to him on the bed, pulling him into a hug. She gently petted the back of his head and rubbed small, comforting circles on his back. Harry stiffened in her arms but slowly relaxed, resting his head on her shoulder.

"Harry," Hermione said quietly, "please listen to me and believe me. Everything you just said is not true. I know this way of thinking has been drilled into your head by that horrible family of yours, but it's wrong."

"Hermione, that's…" Harry started miserably, but she once again interrupted him.

"Harry, just listen to me," she said tenderly. "I don't know everything that happened to you at the Dursleys, but I've seen enough to know that they treated you beyond horribly. I don't know how many times they made you feel like a burden or feel bad about yourself. I will never know or be able to understand exactly how much they hurt you…"

"Hermione, please…" Harry pleaded, close to tears. He tried to pull away, but Hermione only held him tighter, kissing him on the side of the head before continuing.

"…but I _do _know that they were wrong. Harry, you are the best person I have ever met. You're so kind and selfless. You're funny and a good listener. I love every second I'm around you because you're my best friend and I love the person you are. Don't you understand, Harry? The people who love you: the Weasleys, Sirius, me, we love you for you, and no mistake you make would change that because you're still the same person, you're still Harry."

"No," he said with a voice strained with emotion, "I'm not those things you say I am."

"If you're not those things I said you were, then why do you think Ron and I are still friends with you?" she asked, trying to make Harry realize that what she was saying about him was true.

"I don't know! I don't understand it! Why do you guys put up with me, especially now when you should be able to spend time alone with each other? Why are you guys still around? I don't—I don't understand," he cried, desperately fighting tears while Hermione allowed hers to drip freely down her cheeks.

"Oh God, Harry, what have those people done to you?" she whispered.

She pulled back from their hug, quickly wiping the tears from her face. She planted her hands on either side of Harry's face and tilted his head up so their eyes met. His expression was both sad and confused.

"Harry, please, believe me. You're wrong. I don't know how you can think that you're a bad person or that Ron and I don't want to be friends with you," she said desperately. Harry averted his eyes. "No, Harry, look at me," she ordered. Emerald eyes reluctantly met hers. A couple of tears leaked out of Harry's eyes, causing the raven-haired boy to look ashamed. Hermione gently brushed them away with her thumbs. "Listen Harry. Even if you had no one else, you'd always have Ron and I. Just because Ron and I are dating, does _not_ mean that we don't want you around. Sure, Ron and I love each other differently than we love you, but the love we have toward you is just as strong. You're our best friend."

"But…"

"But nothing. Ron loves you like a brother, probably even more than he does his _actual _brothers. Even if you two get into fights or occasionally get on each other's nerves, he'll always be your best friend," she said seriously. "And me. Harry, I love you. You've got to know that. And no matter what mistakes you end up making or fights we get into, that will never change. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't change it because you're you, and I'll never stop loving you no matter what," she said, looking directly into Harry's eyes to make sure he understood that she was being truthful, "no matter what relationship Ron and I are having."

Harry nodded slightly, but Hermione could still sense his doubt. She had expected when she and Ron had started dating that Harry might feel like the third wheel, but she hadn't guessed how much. She had never realized exactly how low his self-esteem was, which had probably reached a new low after his uncle's attack at the Stensons.

She sighed and hugged him tightly.

Suddenly Harry jerked away with a gasp and his hands pressed to his head.

"Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"I'm okay, I need to…" he started standing up but the pain intensified ten-fold and Harry fell to the floor with a cry. He began screaming in pain, his eyes clenched shut and blood flowing from his nose.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked. Harry had told her about these attacks and she knew it would pass, but she hadn't known they were so bad.

She jumped off her bed and knelt beside him.

"Oh God. Oh Merlin," she muttered in a panic as she grabbed her pillow from her bed and ripped off the pillowcase, pressing it to Harry's nose to catch the blood. She pulled his head onto her lap and petted the side of his face as his own hands pressed against his forehead. "Harry?" she called, scared tears running down her face.

"AHHHHH!!!" Harry screamed, his back arching with the pain. "PLEASE!!!! PLEASE STOP!!!"

Soon, the pain abruptly ended, leaving only a dull throbbing. Harry groaned and started to sit up, but Hermione held him in place, gently wiping up the blood and pulling his hands away.

"I'm sorry, 'Mione. Don't cry. I'm okay really. I didn't mean to scare you or anything," Harry said, looking up at her apologetically.

"Oh shush, you. No more apologies for things you don't need to apologize for," she said with a small smile. She began massaging his temples. Harry's eyes slipped closed in relaxation.

"Mmm, that feels good," he murmured. Hermione chuckled.

"Yeah, my mum used to do this to me when I was sick or to get me relaxed when I was too hyper for bedtime."

"'Mione, forget being a professor; you should be a masseuse," he muttered. Hermione laughed.

"And let me guess, since you're my friend you'd get massages free of charge?"

When Harry didn't answer, she looked down and wasn't very surprised to find that Harry had fallen asleep. He was obviously exhausted.

She maneuvered herself so Harry could still lay his head on her lap while she reached over and grabbed her phone. She dialed the Weasley's phone number and, as expected, Ginny picked up. Being the only one who'd taken Muggle Studies, Ginny was the only one aside from her father who appreciated the device. Mrs. Weasley didn't like how it sounded and since the only people who called on it were either Hermione or one of Ginny's muggleborn friends, she was allowed to put it in her room.

"Hello?"

"Ginny. It's Hermione. I have a nice sleeping Harry here in my room just waiting for you," she said quietly with a smile.

"Oh shut it, Hermione," Ginny admonished.

"No, I'm serious, Ginny. He's just had one of those headache attacks and he's fallen asleep right on my floor. You're welcome to come over if you'd like. He needs a human lap as a pillow and someone to caress his face lovingly," she teased, but suddenly heard the dial tone. "Ginny?"

A breathless Ginny appeared at her bedroom door seconds later. "Harry caresser reporting for duty," she joked quietly before gazing at Harry. "Oh Merlin, he's so lovely," she said with a loving sigh.

The two girls carefully switched spots, trying not to laugh at the thought of Harry's reaction when he woke up.

Ginny frowned and gently wiped a bit of blood from his face with her sleeve. Hermione covered Harry with a blanket. Ginny leaned down and kissed his forehead softly, removed his glasses, and then went to gently and slowly massaging his temples as she and Hermione quietly chatted and ate goldfish.

.

Quite a few hours later, Harry woke to be very surprised indeed. There was a lot of stammering and blushing on Harry's part before the three made their way to the kitchen to order pizza.

...........................................................................................................................

A/N: For the alternate ending/uncut version, join my yahoo group!

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**Wiccan PussyKat: **yes, an early update just for you!! And all the other people, but you too! Poor Draco having to clean, I'm afraid he'll need a therapist after that. Hahaha. Draco has informed Sev about the amulet (and is ordered to keep it on at all costs), he's washed his hair, and he's dragged Harry into the shower with him to help get out the spider webs…okay, so maybe the last one hasn't happen, but hey, you never know what's going on behind closed doors wink lol. I'm glad you think my characters are believable! I do try! Well, even if Harry can sort of hide how bad he's doing, he can't hide it from trusty old Hedwig!! Woot woot, go Hedwig! Hahaha, yeah, if Harry needs a psychologist, I'll send him to you. Of course, I'm training to be a masseuse, so I'm sending Harry to myself for that! He needs to relax after all! Well, now that Ron's in Advanced Potions, he can partner up with his girlfriend and Harry can partner up with Draco, so rejoice! Dances around wildly I'm in a strange mood, btw. And the stars on my computer don't work. Sigh. (btw, you might want to take a look at Luinlothana's review for question for JKR)

**Luinlothana: **I'm glad you like Ron so much! I love him. He's so adorable. That's about all we'll hear about Draco's grandmother, I just wanted to get in that one little tidbit about her. The amulet can work with people outside the Malfoy family, they just try to keep it within the family for honors sake, and especially since once it's used, it's a hundred years before it can be used again and they want to use it to protect the Malfoy line. I like the idea for the scene! You should write AU for my fic! That would be so awesome! Lol, I have AU for my fic as well, and now I get to post all my alternate scenes/endings on my yahoo group! But if you really wanted to write an AU for my fic, just ask and I think it would be awesome! Oh I like the question for JKR, I'll have to point it out to PK. Have fun in France!

**ParanoiaIn2005: **I'm glad you liked the little bit of background info on Dray. That's true, Harry is being a bit thickheaded, but can you blame him? He's in a bad place right now and a bit screwed up at this point in time. He's nearing a break down and he's not really thinking clearly. But I'm glad you're seeing that it's not necessarily everyone else's fault here, that they're trying, but Harry, even though it's not his fault, isn't exactly making it easy to help him. Lol, yeah, completely made stuff up for that stirring the potions thing, I always wondered it, so I just randomly made up an explanation to ease my mind. Lol, you gave me the funniest mental image of Voldie sitting on Harry's bed with him in the middle of the night patting him on the back going, "there there, Harry, it's alright. Don't be sad! I'll just AK those Dursleys, how about that? I could arrange for a Dementor to suck out your uncle's soul if you want. Now, don't you want me as your godfather? Yes, I thought so. Come here, big hug!" lol. I'm glad you liked the last scene with Snape. Too bad he didn't try having that conversation a while ago before he killed his trust with Harry. Sigh. Well, we'll just have to see what happens, I guess.

**Leah: **I really try to catch my grammar errors, but when I'm trying to get the chapters out this quickly with a beta who's only on call some of the time, it's hard to find them and Word hasn't picked up on any that have made it through. Sometimes, I think it's a bit harder to find errors in your own work, you know? I'm not sure what you mean about the tangent thing, but if I ever go off on something seemingly random, it might not be as random as you think. __I do write some scenes in different ways, but I do that on purpose to create different moods and such. I'm glad I could make you and your boyfriend cry, though. And I'm pretty sure your attacks might just be migraines or something because most of the cancer stuff I deal with doesn't follow what happens with real Leukemia, since Harry's magic messes things up and I can put in whatever I'd like as his symptoms. I'm glad you are still rooting for Siri, because you're right, he's not had an easy life either and he _is_ trying. Harry cares what Snape thinks because he looks up to Snape in a strange way. Snape was there for him a lot the previous year and Harry used to trust him more than a lot of others. They got close the previous year and into the summer. If you've read book five, you know that Sirius can get angry quite easily. And parents often get really angry when their kid does something that makes them worry so much. Sirius is immature and has a bit of a temper at times, that's how JK wrote him, so I'm sticking with that. Ron's in a tight spot because he wants to help Harry, but doesn't want to do anything to betray his trust or push him away, so he can't just go telling everyone everything Harry says to him.

**Marci018: **My angel!! Once again, I can't thank you enough for the yahoo group! But back to the review, do you really think Sev didn't screw up? He did yell, he reverted to calling Harry "Potter" and accused him of being an arrogant show off, and told him he (Snape) didn't feel as if he needed to keep his word to Harry. I'd say, he screwed up royally. Of course, at least he's asking Harry the blunt questions. I think I feel a poll question being inspired!

**ImaginaryFriendless: **Well, if Lucius wants the amulet, it might be because he's planning something. Just a possibility. wink Of course, he is the head of the Death Eaters now. And no, there's no way to revive Voldie. He's dead and buried. Yeah, Snape's really messed up the trust thing, huh? Mr. and Mrs. Weasley try to give him a talk in the uncut version, which you can read at my yahoo group. It was going to start out this chapter, but it didn't make the cut, I'm afraid. And Harry keeps in touch with Kota all the time, but the Stensons are currently in the middle of moving and though this all has taken many chapters, it's really only been a matter of weeks, and only a few of days since the Malfoy Manor incident. Harry has mastered sounding good in letters when he's really doing horribly. Harry took a week off from testing the day of the Malfoy Manor incident, so he doesn't have another doctor's appointment still for another few days.

**angel74: **If I was continuing this into the next year, that would be so great! I could totally see Draco tutoring Ron to help him become a healer and help Harry. I'm so glad you like Harry and Ron's friendship. They have some great moments in the future of this story. Speaking of your fics, when are you going to update? I'm having withdrawals! Well, if you can't give Harry a hug yourself, that's when you make one of the other fictional characters go hug him (like Ron or Draco, hint hint.) lol, but really, update soon!!

**Savoy Truffle: **Okay, I love these questions, lol, I picture Remus as a softly handsome guy, a little worn looking, with a really sweet smile, and when he gets mad, he can get really frightening, but still look strangely kind. Sirius, I picture as really hot, but sort of grungy hot, lol. The whole, "I haven't taken a bath in 13 years but you still want me" sort of hot. Harry, I think of as adorable with a shy look about him. He manages to look completely innocent, but has this sort of aura of a leader about him at times, and of course, he's completely gorgeous with his messy black hair and green eyes. He's not too buff, and he's a bit on the skinny side, but he's nicely toned and if he had a wet shirt clinging to his body, you'd be panting. And Ron, I picture Ron as taller than Harry, but not towering over him, and sort of awkward looking, but still cute. Freckles on his face, but mostly across the bridge of his nose and on the cheeks where the sun's concentrated. I picture him as always looking a bit self-conscious, but more carefree than Harry and Hermione. I think of him as one of those people you look at it and you know _they_ know they're not cool, so you just want to go be friends with them. Lol, okay so that's probably more than you needed to know. I see them differently than the movie versions of them, _especially _Remus and Sirius, even though the actors did awesome jobs. I don't have msn, though, sorry!

**Creative reader **(well, I've actually just cut out a lot of the angsty stuff I was going to go into and posted it as an alternate/uncut version somewhere else, so I hope that helps, but keep in mind that this is categorized as a drama/angst fic, not a romance/humor one, so things are a bit heavy), **RDC **(The Weasleys aren't oblivious, but they're seeing Harry from a different side than we are, they don't have the inside info. I cut out a scene of the Weasley parents trying to talk to Harry at the beginning of the chapter, but if you'd like to read that, you can read it at my yahoo group. Well, you got some Ginny in this chapter! And as Ron says in this chapter, Harry's been avoiding the Burrow lately.), **lyss33, ThreeToedSloth **(I'm glad you finally got to the chapter. When that happens to me, sometimes you can just go to the person's story and change the number at the end of the URL to the chapter you want. Hmm…lighter might not be the best word, but somewhat soon, I'll be switching from angst to drama and it's lighter in a sense), **Lorie1101 **(lol, I'm glad you enjoyed the early update! Lol, you chuck that microwave at him! I'm glad you haven't stopped loving Sirius because he's really been trying, even if he's been failing so far.), **Dana (MP) **(I personally completely outline the story and write as much of it as I can before I even start posting. I always try to stay at least a few chapters ahead of what I'm posting, and I already have the climax and parts of the ending written, so I can work on them whenever I'm feeling stuck and also see where I can plug in bits of foreshadowing and clues and such. Hope that helps!), **Gypsy t. Potter, Padawan Jan-AQ, Moonchildling **(don't you just want to hug Harry? I want to bring him home as well, but my intentions probably wouldn't be as pure as yours since Harry's more my age and a sex-god. Lol), **Magic Marauder, K, sou85a, Musicstarlover, blulily07, SilverCentaur **(lol, aren't brother's so sweet. I'm glad you find it realistic though, and yeah, they definitely have seen each other at their worst), **kamahpfan, HP-Azn, Shawn Pickett, denaumo, Lupin123, yellowpages **(I'm glad you liked the knitting joke. It gave me a nice mental image), **corinnetkn24, Black-Rose1243 **(no, I know what you mean, Harry's made of some strong stuff. He's made it through all of this and is still the great person he is, even if he's been having a few problems as of late), **lilynjamesAAF, kneh13, torifire126, Charlie Quill, Madame Moony, musiclover, ChildOfDarkness **(oh you make me so happy! Yes, don't you love celebrating Harry's b-day with a good chapter full of emotional torture. Thanks for the puffskein and niffler! I'm cuddling them right now!), **FaeRhapsody **(lol, I'm glad my perspective on Siri can reach the masses! Or maybe just your friend, lol. Just tell her that Siri and Remy are together! She'll never know they're not! Thank you so much for the wonderful compliment! I'm so happy my fics make you think!), **MsHobgoblin, Sauron the Deciever **(We are in the twenties of July), **holly **(thanks!)**, Ashaera **(well, the entire fic is during the summer. It's not going into the school year, so that might explain why it's still in the summer lol), **azntgr01, acciodanrad9, Shadowdancer, SiriusWolf, athenakitty **(Draco already told Sev about the amulet and Sev told him to keep the thing on! Lol, a teddy bear for Harry! That would be adorable. Yeah, Dudley will probably be going back to public school, and I'll have to let you decide if you think Petunia and Dudley will ever see the light.), **alternativelyspliced **(Yeah, Harry's not doing so well on the psychological level here, now is he. Not saying he's going crazy, but you know what I mean. I'm glad you see that they do care about him, but just don't know what to do. Well, this fic is going to be as long, or slightly longer than Recnac in actual length, but since I used to do about 4 pages per chapter and now do about 12, it'll be much shorter in chapters. We're on 18 right now, I'd guess in the mid-twenties maybe?) **MissLilyStar **(of course, I can't answer your questions, but if you keep reading, you'll find out!), **Snuffles, Siri Kat, Shadow Wolf2418, bean, Xanadrine, EriEka127, Kfelton, Trevor the Enchanter **(lol, yes, the twins would have much fun with the Dursleys. I'm glad I've captured it well! Lol, I've done a lot of random internet research for these fics, mainly with health things. Concussions, fevers, cancers, I'm becoming a pro!), **Howl **(lol, so would I! Let's go hug Snape and then run! Oh, I really want to become a real author. I sometimes act out interviews in the shower, lol. I never hate questions! I can't always answer them, but they're great anyways. And I love my frayed ribbon. I've pinned it to my shirt!), **texasjeanette **(ooh, I really like the pensieve idea. I never even thought of that, but it's great!), **Hekate101, Pirrip **(I'm glad you like this one so much! I know, unfortunately, many people want me to make Harry suddenly happy again, but I don't know how I could do that and still have it be realistic. I'm glad you appreciate what I'm doing though), **gina87, dominy **(you know, I'm glad you pointed that out, and because of that, I'm just shifting my update scheduleso you guys don't have to wait longer. I'll do it again if I ever update early again. Wow, so if you're deprived of sleep, you start hallucinating? That could be very bad for Harry. You'll just have to see what happens to the poor kid), **DumDum124 **(lol, yeah, Eloise rocks. I'll see what I can do), **Dea Puella, Crystal113, Opal Rain Dragon **(lol, mark me as well informed. I'm so glad you decided to give my fics a chance and that you actually liked it! I mean, er…hated it, even though you would like the next chapter. #nods# Aren't grilled cheese sandwiches great? If I ever become an author and do book signings, I'm going to have great big stacks of them…all for me of course. I'm glad you're no longer anorexic looking and can enjoy grilled cheese), **lost angel92, singukusa**


	19. Gone

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone! I just got back from my college orientation. It was so great even though I ended up with some very random classes. At least I got Greek Mythology, which I'm really excited about. Anyways, this is a crazily long chapter, and since I want to get it up, and am very tired and late with this update, I'm going to skip review responses for this one, sorry!! I'm glad a lot of you seem to be liking the yahoo group, but please don't stop reviewing here at ! I thrive off your reviews and would hate to see them drop off! So, without further ado, here's the chapter!

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Harry got home to find Ron lounging on his bed reading part of Harry's newest Muggle book Kota had ordered him to read.

"Why in the name of Merlin are you spending your summer reading this stuff, Harry?" Ron asked, setting down the book and making a face.

"Kota's trying to educate me in the world of Muggle literature," Harry said with a shrug. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I've been waiting for you to come home for ages. I figured you were over at Malfoy's."

"Actually, I was at 'Mione's. Ginny came too a little while ago and I think she's staying over there for a little longer in case you're looking for her," Harry said casually.

"Harry," Ron said, biting his lip nervously, "I think we need to talk."

Harry looked at him in concern. "Is everything okay?" he asked worriedly.

Ron sighed and walked over to shut the door, standing between it and Harry to make sure he didn't run out. "No, it's not, Harry. I'm worried about you. Ever since the thing with your uncle at the Stensons, you've been acting a lot different. Well, actually, I guess you've been _acting_ a lot the same, but you're still different, like when you laugh and stuff, I can tell you're faking it a lot of the time. And you still flinch whenever anyone touches you or makes sudden movements around you."

"I do not!" Harry said indignantly.

"Yes you do! And you seem so afraid to upset anyone, especially Sirius. Whenever you two disagree on something, you back down immediately, like you don't want to make him mad or something. Sometimes I swear you even look scared around him!" He paused thoughtfully. "And I think you've even been doing it to me, like you don't even want to disagree with me about anything."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Do you want me to fight with you over stupid things?" he asked, a tinge of fright in his voice.

"No, but we used to argue over the stupid stuff, not fight, just disagree. Like Quidditch teams and whether spinach-flavored Bertie Botts beans counted as a health food. It was what made things interesting sometimes. It made us different, but now you don't disagree with anything anymore. It's like you aren't you. I want to know if that bastard said something to you to make you act like this," he said angrily.

_You're pathetic. You're worthless. You only ruin lives._

"No," he snapped defensively. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ron's eyes looked at him searchingly. "You're lying. He _did_ say something. Tell me what it was so I can help you."

_You're just a FREAK!_

"He didn't say anything," Harry said angrily.

"You don't still think it was an accident, do you?" Ron asked sharply.

Harry glared at him. "No, I realize perfectly well that he hates my bloody guts, thank you."

"Harry, what did he say?"

"It's none of your business," Harry said heatedly. "I'm done with this stupid conversation. Let me out."

Ron only blocked the door further.

"Stop acting like a snot, Harry," he said warningly.

Harry blinked momentarily. "Oh, sorry," he said apologetically. "I didn't mean…"

"See? This is what I mean! If I had said that to you a few months ago, you would have yelled back at me! Like in a proper row! Your uncle said something to you, and it probably wasn't true, so tell me what it is and I'll tell you whether you should pay attention to it or not!" Ron yelled.

_How could anybody love a piece of trash like you?_

"Just drop it, Ron," Harry growled.

"No, Harry. You need to talk about it and why not with me? I may not know how you're feeling, but at least I can listen and I can be there for you. Nobody wants to push you to talk about it but I think they're wrong. I know you and I can tell what this is doing to you, so you have to talk about it, no matter how hard it is."__

"It was nothing, Ron! Nothing!" Harry yelled. "He was drunk and mad, that's all!"

"It was nothing? Harry, are you mad? He would have killed you if we hadn't gotten into that kitchen. He almost _did_ kill you! He tied your wrists with wire and beat you with a bloody chair leg!" Ron yelled furiously.

Harry clamped his hands over his ears and shut his eyes. "Shut up, shut up, shut up," he muttered, but Ron ignored his pleas.

"Merlin knows what else he did since you won't tell anyone! What did he say? That you deserved it? That he hated you? That you were a…" he tried to remember the word that Harry always said the Dursleys thought he was, " a _freak_?"

"SHUT UP!" Harry yelled.

"Harry, what the hell did he say?!" Ron screamed. "Was I right? Because if that's what he said to you, he's wrong!"

"You don't know anything!" Harry yelled.

"No shit, because you won't tell me anything!! And why the hell not? What are you afraid of? Why won't you tell me? Are you afraid I'll laugh or something? Are you afraid that I'll think less of you for some reason?"

_And when they find out how you really are, and find out what a burden you are, they're going to hate you just as much as I do! _

"I don't want to say it and have you know that it's true, that he's right! I don't want you to know what he knows and realize you don't want a pathetic, worthless _freak _as your friend anymo—" he screamed before clapping a hand over his mouth with a horrified expression. "For Christ's sake, Ron, just leave me alone and let me out of here!" he yelled.

"No!" Ron yelled back. "Not until you tell me what's wrong! Keep going, tell me what he said, Harry. I know you and I already know that whatever he said is probably rubbish, so just tell me. We've got 'pathetic' and 'freak,' what else?"

"Stop it, Ron!" Harry begged, backing up into his dresser.

"What's keeping you up at night, Harry?" Ron pressed. "Is it just nightmares about what happened or about other things as well? Or is it because you can't decide whether what your uncle said was true or not?"

"Ron, please stop it," Harry pleaded desperately. "Please."

"Just tell me what he said, Harry. He took you in the kitchen and locked the door and then what did he do? What did he say?" Ron prodded, pushing away his guilt at making Harry relive this.

Harry shut his eyes and clamped his hands over his ears, sliding down the dresser until he was sitting on the floor. Ron knelt in front of him and grabbed his wrists, pulling Harry's hands from his ears. Harry opened his eyes and looked at him pleadingly, shaking his head.

Ron took a moment to really get a close look at his friend.

Harry was going downhill, that wasn't hard to see. He looked worse than he had when he had spent the night at the Burrow when Ron had found him reading in the bathroom in the middle of the night. The circles under his eyes had become more obvious and Ron suspected he might have lost some weight as well. Harry's eyebrows were almost constantly knitted and he was always tense. Ron had also noticed that Harry's hands had become constantly shaky, not just at night when he was trying to fight sleep. Whether it was from exhaustion, nervousness, or something else, Ron didn't know.

What had happened to Harry while they all were supposed to be watching?

"Ron," Harry said in a whisper, looking blankly off into space, "everything was supposed to be perfect, but it's all falling apart. Everything's falling apart and it's all because of me. You'd be better off…you'd be better off not being friends with me."

"Harry," Ron said gently, "that's not going to happen. Just, look at me. Tell me what your uncle said, okay?"

Harry looked down and Ron put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He could feel Harry tense up under the touch and eventually force himself to relax.

"But everything he said was true," Harry said, closing his eyes to try to fight back tears, but two slipped out despite his efforts. He started reached up to wipe them away, but Ron gently grabbed his wrist and pushed it back down.

"Harry, it's okay."

"Nothing's okay," Harry whispered.

There was a long pause.

"Harry, you can tell me," Ron prompted. Harry looked down at the floor to his side.

Harry opened his mouth to say something but his bedroom door burst open, interrupting the conversation. Draco entered, faltering as soon as he saw the two. He immediately stepped back, realizing what was going on.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know Weasley was here," he said with a wide-eyed look as he quickly started to exit the room. "Keep talking. I'll talk to you later…"

"No," Harry said, quickly wiping at his face with his sleeve and jumping to his feet. "Actually, Ron was just leaving. Actually, you both should go; I need to get to dinner. Remus is making spaghetti and I need to get down there."

"Harry…" Ron protested, getting to his feet.

"No, Harry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I…" Draco said frantically.

"You didn't," Harry said quickly. "I just need to do, um, some things before dinner. I'll see you guys later," he said, ushering them toward the door.

"Harry, no," Ron said firmly. "I'm staying. I need to talk to you about this."

"There's nothing to talk about. Now I'll see you guys later," he said resolutely.

"You can't just push me away like this, Harry!" Ron said desperately.

"I'm not, Ron, there's just nothing to say, okay?" Harry insisted, finally getting the two out in the hall. "I just really have to get some things done right now and I'll see you later."

Harry closed his bedroom door, leaving his two friends in the hall.

"Oh good job, Malfoy. Bravo. Really well done there," Ron said bitterly as he headed toward the stairs.

Draco scowled at him. "Hey, how was I supposed to know you were here? I was going to go try to talk to him. It's not like we worked out a schedule or anything."

"Well, you could have asked Sirius or Remus," Ron snapped as the two stomped down the stairs. "I don't think this is going to work. I mean, even if we figure out everything his uncle said that one night, what about all the other stuff he's said to Harry throughout his entire life? I don't think Harry will ever let us know it all. So what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"Anything we can," Draco said before Flooing away.

"I just hope that's enough," Ron muttered before Flooing away himself.

.

"Harry?" Sirius called as he knocked on his godson's bedroom door. Harry was usually the first one up in the house, but it was now approaching ten o'clock and he still hadn't come down. Ron had shown up to ask if he could talk to Harry, since they still hadn't made up since the previous day's fight. Ron had been surprised as well to find that Harry was still in bed. Sirius had told Ron to stay downstairs while he went to see what was going on, now starting to doubt that Harry was just having a lie in.

When there was no answer, Sirius opened the door. Harry was still lying in bed, facing the window. As Sirius got approached, his stomach plummeted as he noticed that Harry was shivering despite the summer heat and had vomit on the side of his pillow.

Sirius ran over and turned Harry onto his back. Harry's face gleamed with sweat and he looked sickly pale. His eyebrows were knitted in pain even while he was sleeping.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled frantically, shaking his godson's shoulders slightly. Harry moaned painfully and blinked open his eyes.

"Sirius? I don't feel so good," he murmured with a grimace.

Sirius cleaned up the sick on Harry's pillow with a wave of his wand and put a hand to the boy's forehead. There was no question that Harry was running a fever, and a pretty high one from the feel of it.

"Harry, I'm going to be right back, okay? Just give me a second, alright?" Sirius asked shakily.

Harry nodded weakly and squeezed his eyes shut.

Sirius ran to the top of the stairs and ran down until he could see Ron who had plopped down onto the couch.

"Ron!" Sirius yelled, causing the redhead to jump and whirl his head around in surprise. "Ron, I need you to get Snape right now."

Ron quickly stood up. "Is something wrong with Harry?" he asked worriedly.

"Yes, he's ill. Now go," he ordered before running back to Harry's room.

Minutes later, Snape walked hurriedly through the door over to Harry's bed, followed closely by Draco and Ron.

"You two," Snape barked at the two boys after checking Harry over, "Floo to St. Mungo's sixth floor…"

"They don't have a sixth floor," Draco protested.

"It's their research floor so it's not listed on the floor guide," Snape explained irritably. "In the fire, just say 'St. Mungo's, sixth floor, nine, five, three, three'. That's last bit's the pass code so don't forget it or you won't be allowed on. Find Hr. Callahan and tell him to get over here."

"Is Harry okay?" Ron asked, trying to crane his neck to see Harry, who the two men were blocking.

"Come on, Weasley, let's get the healer," Draco said before Snape could yell at Ron for dawdling.

Ron turned to the blonde and stiffly nodded. The two raced out of the room.

The two men turned to Harry, who had fallen back to sleep when Sirius had left the room. Sirius gently shook him awake.

"Professor?" Harry asked hoarsely as his tired eyes landed on Snape. His breathing was ragged and each time he drew in air, it seemed to cause him pain.

"What are your symptoms? Where does it hurt?" Snape asked in a business-like tone.

"My stomach," he whimpered. "And my head. And everything else," he added with a weak smile before a grimace crossed his face and he coughed painfully. "Is this just because of my immune system or is it something else?" Harry asked worriedly. That was the question that was worrying them all. They had no idea if this was connected to the random headaches Harry had been getting or not.

"We don't know," Snape said gravely. "Hr. Callahan is on his way, though I doubt he'll be able to tell either."

"Oh good," Harry joked weakly.

Soon, Hr. Callahan arrived and the three adults forced Ron and Draco to wait in the living room.

Hr. Callahan checked him over, but could only conclude that Harry was indeed ill, probably with something that had started out as a small thing that had gotten out of control because of his weak immune system. He assured them that he had no reason to believe it had any connection with Harry's headaches, though after Harry was better, he wanted to bring him in for testing to try to determine if this was true.

The healer reached into his small bag and pulled out a bunch of potions that Harry was sure couldn't have all fit in a normal bag of that size. Harry's suspicion that the bag was magical was confirmed when Hr. Callahan reached into it so that his whole arm was engulfed up to his shoulder, when the bag was about a foot deep at most. Harry felt like he was at a kid's magic show, and got a great kick out of it all.

Harry took all the potions he was forced to, feeling very drowsy at the end.

"Well, we'll try these potions. They're the best I can do, and we'll just have to hope they work. As you can see, Harry, they're going to make you a bit sleepy, but that's good because you need your rest. I'll come back tomorrow, to see how everything's going and to see if we need to administer anymore medicine."

"What potions are they?" Snape asked, as the healer put the beakers and vials back into his bag. Hr. Callahan got that look he always did when Snape challenged his medical expertise, one of forced cheerfulness.

"Just a few standard potions for Harry's symptoms and something for his immune system. Don't worry, Professor, I'm not trying to poison him," he said with a reassuring smile. "Feel better, Harry," he said softly, ruffling the boy's hair.

Harry murmured his goodbyes as he slipped into slumber.

The three men exited the room quietly and went down to the living room where they were met by two impatient teenage boys. Hr. Callahan flooed away.

"Can we finally go see him?" Draco asked exasperatedly.

"Harry's sleeping now," Sirius informed the two.

"Well, can I stay anyways?" Ron asked. "I won't wake him up, I promise. Besides, I've done it before when he had cancer."

"Well, if Weasley's staying, I'm staying," Draco said stubbornly.

"I appreciate that you did that for Harry, Ron, but I think I'd like to take care of him this time around," Sirius said. "I know you two are his friends, but I want to spend some time with him."

The two nodded reluctantly. The three left, with Snape promising to return later to check on Harry.

.

When Harry woke, Sirius got him some water to drink while he went to call Snape through the fire.

When the man returned, Harry was getting out of bed.

"Harry, what are you doing out of bed?" Sirius asked worriedly. "Get your sick bum back in there!"

"Sirius," Harry said with a roll of the eyes, "I'm fine."

"Unless you want me to force you to stay in it for an extra day, whether you're sick or not, you'll get back in it right now," Sirius said sternly.

Harry looked at him in surprise. "Wow, I think you were just channeling Mrs. Weasley," he mused. Sirius smirked proudly.

"Good, maybe you'll actually listen to me then."

Harry weakly got back into bed, though he tried desperately not to show how hard it was. He sat up, leaning against the wall, as Snape briefly checked him over. When he was done, he looked at Harry with a frown.

"Harry, how are you feeling in comparison with this morning?" he asked.

"Better," he answered a little too quickly.

"Now this time let's be honest, shall we? Your health doesn't reflect a positive change since this morning. And don't you dare tell me you're fine. So, how are you feeling?"

Harry looked down. "Umm…not so good then, I guess," he mumbled.

"It doesn't seem the potions Callahan gave you are doing a thing. I always knew that healer was a joke," he sneered.

"And let me guess," Sirius said sarcastically, "if he had let _you _make the potions, Harry would be healed now, right? Do we have to go through this every time?"

"We wouldn't have to go through it every time if he'd let me make the potions," Snape retorted.

"Hr. Callahan's trying his best," Harry said in defense of the healer. "It's not his fault I happen to be a medical anomaly. Besides, it's either this and being alive, or not having it and being dead."

Sirius flinched.

"He didn't even tell me what he gave you," Snape said in annoyance. "He never does anymore. It's irritating."

"That's because you kept insulting his potions and interfering with what he's trying to do with Harry. He's not too fond of you," Sirius pointed out. Snape glared at him.

"It doesn't matter," Harry said dismissively. "I'll get over whatever it is soon enough."

"I don't know if it's as simple as that, Harry," Snape said. "Your immune system might not be able to fight whatever it is all that well. But now I can't even give you any potions without knowing what that crackpot gave you."

"I think that's probably the reason he didn't tell you what he gave Harry in the first place. It's probably best not to mess with whatever Hr. Callahan's doing. Remember, Snape, even though you have a bit of training in healing, you aren't a healer. Callahan probably knows what he's doing better than you do," Sirius said simply.

Snape scowled at him. "Well, then why is Harry getting worse?" he challenged.

"The man isn't Merlin. Even magical medicine can't solve everything," Sirius said. "And maybe if you'd stop starting competitions over everything he does, he'd be more likely to tell you things."

Snape scowled at him but dropped it, not wanting to start a fight in front of Harry when the kid was obviously not feeling well.

"I like Hr. Callahan," Harry said tiredly.

"Why? Because he's _nice_ to you?" Snape said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Harry said sleepily, pushing back some of his covers as his fever made him feel too hot and too cold both at once. "Because he's _always_ nice to me, even when I'm difficult."

Both Sirius and Snape both felt a pang of guilt at this comment.

"I'm a little tired," Harry murmured, half-asleep already. "I think I'll go back to sleep for a little while, if that's all right."

"Yeah, Harry. That's all right," Sirius said sadly.

Snape pulled Harry's covers back over him and the boy made a murmur of protest and tried to push them away, even though he was shivering.

"Harry, keep them on, okay? The heat's good for you," Snape instructed.

"'Kay," Harry murmured just before his breathing evened out.

The two men left the room in silence.

"Try to keep him warm unless his fever gets too high," Snape instructed. "Don't force him to eat or drink if he doesn't want to, because he'll just vomit it right back up. I'll come back around nine tonight to see how he's doing."

"I don't think that'll be necessary, Snape. There's nothing you'd be able to do even if he wasn't feeling better," Sirius said.

"Well, Draco will want to know how he's doing," Snape said, omitting the fact that _he_ would want to know how Harry was doing as well. "Plus, won't you want to know if he's getting worse?"

Sirius glared at the Potions master for his insinuating tone and said nothing.

"As I said before, I'll be back around nine," he said before turning abruptly and going downstairs to use the fireplace.

Sirius made several obscene gestures at Snape's back before the man flooed away.

.

When Snape did come back later that night, Sirius met him with a worried expression and led him up to Harry's room.

"He hasn't woken since you left. It's been over six hours. And, well, he just doesn't look very good. I owled Hr. Callahan, but he was busy with another patient and he said not to worry too much and that he'd try to find something else to help and just to put a cool cloth on his forehead if the fever got really high. But, well, look at him," he said worriedly as the two quietly entered Harry's room.

Harry was lying in his bed, his skin shimmering with sweat. His eyebrows were knitted in his sleep and he wore a pained expression. His breathing seemed a little quicker than normal and he looked slightly too pale. Snape went over and took his temperature. It had gotten a few degrees higher than before.

"Harry," he called, shaking the boy awake.

Harry groaned and wrenched his eyes open, blinking tiredly up at Snape.

"Professor?" he asked weakly, squinting at him. Snape slipped Harry's glasses onto his face. Sirius joined Snape at Harry's side.

"Hey, Har, how you feeling?" he asked.

"'m fine," he murmured hoarsely.

"Stupid question, Black," Snape muttered. "And even more stupid of an answer, Harry."

Harry chuckled weakly, but it turned into a hoarse cough that ripped painfully from his throat.

"Are you hungry at all?" Snape asked. "Can you stomach any food?" Harry shook his head tiredly. "How about some water?" Harry once again shook his head, a nauseous look on his face that told Snape not to force it. "Are you still tired?" he asked with a frown. Harry closed his eyes and nodded. "Alright, get some rest then."

Harry was already asleep. Sirius sighed and removed his godson's glasses.

The two quietly slipped out of the room.

"Look, Black, don't worry too much. This is often the way it goes with fevers. Harry's body is raising its temperature to kill whatever bug he's got and once it does that, he should get better pretty quickly. I'm sure he'll be well again by tomorrow or the next day. When is Callahan coming tomorrow?" Snape asked.

"He just said tomorrow morning. He thinks the potions he gave Harry earlier weren't strong enough with Harry's condition, so he's researching it tonight to see if he can find something better," Sirius informed him without the usual bitter tone as his worry was taking over.

"Alright, if there's a significant change in his condition, contact me and I'll be right over."

Sirius nodded and went to make himself some coffee as Snape left.

With a steaming cup in his hand, he made his way back up to Harry's room and pulled Harry's desk chair up to the bed, thankful he'd transfigured it into something more comfortable a few hours before. He cast a cooling charm on the rag on Harry's head and settled in for a long night.

.

The next morning, Fred, George, Ginny and Ron flooed into the Lighthouse to find Draco sitting impatiently in one of the living room chairs.

"Hey, Draco," Ginny greeted the blonde. "Are we allowed to go see Harry?"

"Not yet. Sev just went up there and Harry's healer will be here soon, so we have to wait," he said, clearly annoyed at the fact.

On cue, the fire flared up in green behind them and Hr. Callahan stepped out.

"Hi, is Harry still upstairs?" he asked kindly.

Before they had a chance to answer, Snape was at the stairs, calling for the man to come up.

"Sev," Draco called. "Can we see Ha…"

"Draco," Snape interrupted, "I don't think you're going to be able to visit Harry today," he said grimly as Hr. Callahan caught up with him on the stairs and the two quickly walked off toward Harry's room, speaking in hushed voices.

The five teenagers looked at each other worriedly. That didn't sound good. Ginny sat down next to Draco on the couch, and the other three boys found other places to sit and wait for news.

.

Snape and Hr. Callahan entered Harry's room to find the boy sitting up in bed, propped up by pillows, blinking over at them. He looked much how he had the previous night except for a strange dazed look in his eyes. Sirius was sitting next to him looking very upset.

"Professor?" Harry said in confusion, despite the fact that the man had been in their minutes before. "Do I have detention?"

"No, Harry, you don't. It's summer, remember?" Snape reminded him for the third time.

Hr. Callahan approached the bed. "Hey, Harry, do you remember me?" he asked gently, pulling out a stethoscope.

Harry looked at him blankly for a second before looking a bit upset himself. "I don't know," he said, sounding distressed.

"Hr. Callahan. Your healer. You come to me because we're trying to find out what's giving you those headaches, remember?" he asked in a hopeful tone.

"Okay," Harry said dismissively before looking out his window. "Hey, there's a hippogriff out there! I learned about them in Hagrid's class and then Hagrid was sad because they were going to kill Buckbeak for hurting Malfoy and we had to go through time and save him and there was an hourglass and I met someone…you!" he said excitedly pointing at Sirius, before his expression turned to one of confusion. "You tried to kill me and Ron and…some other people. Where am I?"

Hr. Callahan checked Harry's temperature and Harry looked at him suspiciously.

"He's delirious with fever," he announced with a frown.

"Oh really? We hadn't gotten that," Snape said sarcastically. Hr. Callahan shot him an annoyed look and went on, ignoring the comment.

"Anyway, I've spent the night working with some potions specialists at the hospital and I've brought some of the stuff they've been working on. They're still working so if this doesn't work, I'll hopefully have something else by tonight. I brought some for now and some for in about six hours," he said, pulling out a couple of vials and setting one aside on Harry's nightstand. "Hey, Harry, I want you to drink this, okay?"

"What is it?" Harry asked suspiciously. He looked up and gave Snape a suspicious look. "Does it have truth serum in it?"

"No, Harry, it's just medicine," Hr. Callahan asked.

"For my cancer?" he asked.

"No, you don't have cancer anymore. You just have a very high fever right now. I'm trying to help you, I promise. I just need you to drink this, okay?" Hr. Callahan asked with a comforting smile, holding the vial to Harry's lips and slowly tilting it.

Harry pushed his hand away suddenly looking very angry.

"Death Eater!" he yelled, glaring at the surprised man. He looked over at his godfather. "Sirius! It's Peter Pettigrew! Don't let him escape or we can't set you free!"

"Harry, Peter's already been given the Dementor's kiss. I witnessed it myself. This is Healer Callahan," Sirius said calmly.

"I know," Harry said with a strange look at Sirius, having completely forgotten his wild accusations.

"Don't be offended," Sirius assured the healer, "he's already thought I was Arthur Weasley and Minerva McGonagall."

"He put Veritaserum in there," Harry told Sirius. "Snape told him to."

Hr. Callahan sighed and looked over to Sirius for help, who nodded and took the vial. Hr. Callahan got up and Sirius moved into his place.

"Hey Har," he said, wiping Harry's sweaty fringe from his forehead.

"Sirius, you're free!" Harry said in surprise.

"Yes, yes I'm free and you're living with me. I want you to drink something for me, Harry, okay?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"It will make you happy if I drink it?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it'll make me happy," Sirius confirmed.

"Okay then."

Sirius helped Harry drink the vial of liquid before the boy went back to looking out his window.

"Alright, the second dose is in that vial there and should be taken in six hours." Hr. Callahan quietly picked up Harry's wand off his nightstand and handed it to Sirius. "You might want to keep this out of his reach until the delirium has passed. Now don't be insulted if he doesn't seem to know you at times. As you can see, he's occasionally reverting back to past times and that might include him thinking your relationship is as it was in the past, meaning he might pick up old fights or conversations as if you were having them right now, or be confused about time or place. It's all normal and should pass, but if his temperature climbs any higher, contact me immediately. I'm going back to the lab to see if the potions specialists I'm working with have gotten any further."

As soon as he left, Snape picked up the second vial and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to see what's in this. I'll have it back in a few hours," he said, pocketing the vial.

"Try not to go into shock when you find out it's properly made," Sirius said in annoyance.

Snape shot the man a cold look.

"I'll tell Draco and the Weasleys they can't see Harry today," he said.

Harry looked over at Snape. "Malfoy? What's Malfoy doing here?" he asked with a tinge of disgust in his voice.

"Yeah, it's definitely not a good idea for them to come up," Sirius said before reminding Harry that he and Draco were friends now, a fact that Harry didn't believe.

.

Downstairs, the five teenagers jumped to their feet when Snape came down.

"The healer wouldn't tell us anything!" Draco exclaimed indignantly. "He said something about healer-patient confidentiality and that you'd tell us, blah blah blah. Sev, what's going on?"

"Harry has a very high fever right now, so none of you will be visiting him today," he said sternly.

"Wait, is it something contagious?" Ginny asked, stepping in between Snape and the fireplace to make sure the man couldn't leave before answering her questions.

"Possibly," Snape said vaguely.

"Well, Weasley and I were in there all day yesterday and we're not sick," Draco pointed out.

"Yeah, can't we just go see him?" Ron asked.

"No, he's not up for visitors," Snape snapped, getting annoyed with the insistent teenagers.

"We just want a few minutes," George put in.

"Just to cheer him up a bit," Fred added.

"And to let him know we're worried about him," Ginny continued.

"No," Snape said firmly.

There were muffled shouts from upstairs and everyone looked up at the stairs in worried surprise.

"Snape," Sirius shouted as he ran to the edge of the stairs, looking upset, "can you come up here?"

Snape turned to the teenagers. "Everyone with red hair go home. Draco, wait here for me and if you try to sneak upstairs, you will be scrubbing the floors of the kitchen with a toothbrush…_your _toothbrush," he threatened before hurrying up the stairs. "What's the matter?" he asked Sirius quietly as the two got closer to Harry's room.

Sirius just shook his head and led the man into Harry's room. As soon as they entered, Harry looked at Sirius in horror.

"Professor! It's Sirius Black! It's him! He betrayed my parents! He's trying to kill me and my wand's gone!" Harry exclaimed, starting to get out of bed.

"I'm going to go get Remus, can you stay with him for a minute?" Sirius asked with a sigh.

Snape quickly agreed and rushed over to Harry's bed, trying to calm him and get him to lie back down.

Sirius heard Harry starting to explain to Snape that Sirius was insane and out to kill him as he hurried away from the room and down the stairs.

He was hit by a barrage of questions as he made his way to the fireplace. He put a hand up to silence them and quickly called Remus, who stepped through the fireplace seconds later.

"Remus," Sirius started, letting the five teenagers listen in, "Harry's gotten worse. His fever's gotten so high he's been delusional all morning. If you can stay, he occasionally starts thinking I'm trying to kill him like in his third year and he's never doubted you except for that one time in the Shrieking Shack, but…"

"Don't worry, Padfoot. Of course I'll stay," Remus said worriedly. "I'll go up right now."

Sirius nodded, taking a deep breath, looking a bit unsure of what to do with himself as Remus left the room.

The five teens looked at him with intense worry on their faces.

"Wait, Harry's delusional?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Yes," Sirius said with a sigh, "his fever's gotten dangerously high, but there's nothing we can do at the moment except wait and hope Hr. Callahan's potions start working or Harry's immune system can kick in and start fighting whatever it is."

"Is he going to be okay?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"I don't know. I hope so," Sirius said with a haunted look, his thoughts unwillingly drifting back to the previous year. He shook them away. "Well, Harry wouldn't want you all seeing him like this and he needs his rest. You can try coming back tomorrow, and I'll send news if he gets much worse, okay?"

The five begrudgingly agreed. Snape soon came down the stairs, collected Draco and after insisting Sirius call him if things got worse, flooed away with his godson. The Weasleys also left, ordering Sirius to tell Harry they came by and to owl them as soon as he was allowed to have visitors.

The next few hours were spent taking turns with Harry, who was drifting in and out of sleep along with different degrees of having a grasp on reality.

.

Sirius looked up in surprise as Mrs. Weasley stepped through the fireplace holding a large, steaming bowl in her hands with two oven mitts. He had just been making his way back upstairs with a cup of coffee. Remus had been called away earlier on some unavoidable Order business so Sirius was watching over Harry himself. A few minutes earlier, Harry had once again started panicking, believing his godfather was after him, so Sirius left the room to get some coffee and hoped Harry had forgotten about it by now or had at least calmed down.

"Molly?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"Hello Sirius. How's Harry doing? I brought him some soup," she said, holding up the bowl.

Sirius sighed. "Not so good, to tell you the truth. He's been drifting in and out of sleep all day and when he's conscious he's been completely out of it. He's running a nasty fever, and no matter how much he takes of the potions Hr. Callahan gave us, he just seems to get worse. It's nice that you stopped by, Molly, but I don't know if you should go up there right now. Harry's not himself. He's delirious with fever and doesn't make much sense when he talks and keeps forgetting where he is, or who I am, or why he can't go see Ron."

"Don't be silly, Sirius. I'm a mother of seven. I assure you I've dealt with it all, or am at least prepared for it all," Mrs. Weasley said confidently.

"Alright then. Be my guest. If Harry recognizes you, I'm sure he'll be happy to see you," Sirius said tiredly.

"Sirius, you look dead on your feet and it would be a lot better if you were awake for Harry, so why don't I watch him for an hour or so while you get some rest."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Of course I'm sure."

"Alright, just wake me when you're done."

Mrs. Weasley made her way up to Harry's room and walked in, setting the bowl on the nightstand.

Harry was lying in bed. His eyes looked strangely bruised as they blinked over at Mrs. Weasley. He was shivering slightly and his forehead was shining with perspiration. He swallowed painfully.

"Mrs. Weasley?" he asked with confusion.

Mrs. Weasley pulled over Harry's desk chair, sat down beside him and brushed his hair away from his face.

"Hi darling. I brought you some soup," she said kindly.

Harry ignored this and looked around the room blankly.

"Where am I?" he asked in confusion. Mrs. Weasley smiled at him sympathetically.

"You're in your room, Harry. At the Lighthouse."

Harry looked around the room in dazed wonder. "It's nice," he said wistfully. "Is this Sirius's house?"

"Yes, love, he's downstairs. Do you want me to go fetch him?"

Harry's eyes grew wide and he shook his head quickly. "No. It's his day off," he said anxiously.

"It's okay Harry, I won't get him," Mrs. Weasley said calmingly. Harry closed his eyes as an involuntary shiver made it's way down his spine. He opened his eyes wearily. The emerald orbs looked glazed over with fever.

"Do you want to try eating some soup?" Mrs. Wealsey asked gently. Harry looked over to the bowl skeptically.

"Who made it?" he asked tiredly.

"I did," she said with a motherly smile.

"Okay," he murmured, struggling to sit up. Mrs. Weasley helped him settle back against his headboard, shifting the pillows to make it more comfortable for him.

She moved the bowl to the edge of the bed. Harry reached for the spoon but his hand was shaking so violently, Mrs. Weasley gently pushed it away and lifted the spoon to Harry's mouth. Harry looked at her in bewildered surprise.

"Love, did your aunt ever take care of you when you were sick?" Mrs. Weasley asked, praying that at least Harry's _aunt_ was decent.

Harry blinked at her in confusion. "Ron took care of me last year. He woke me up every day and made sure I took my medicine. Oh, and he gave me a shot. And Hermione told me stories," Harry muttered wistfully.

Mrs. Weasley smiled sadly, taking that answer as a no to her question.

"Well, open up, dear. Let's see if you can eat some of this soup."

Harry got down three spoonfuls of the hot liquid before turning his head away. Mrs. Weasley understood and put the bowl back on Harry's nightstand. Harry ran his hand over the maroon bedspread lovingly.

"It's all so nice," he murmured dazedly.

"Well you deserve it, dear," Mrs. Weasley said fondly. Harry shook his head.

"No, no," he muttered. "I have to give it back."

"No you don't Harry. It's yours. You're going to be staying here as long as you want," she said softly. Harry turned his glazed eyes to Mrs. Weasley.

"I have to go back to the Dursleys'," he said firmly but sadly. "I have to go to make everyone happy again."

"Harry," Mrs. Weasley said darkly, "you are never going back there. We would never let you go back there after what they did to you."

"It was just an accident," Harry muttered. "They don't _really _hate me, I just make it really hard for them. It was all my fault."

"Darling, no. It wasn't your fault at all!" Mrs. Weasley quickly protested.

Harry stared in a feverish haze at his bedspread.

"No, that's what they said and they're the only ones that don't lie to me. I can trust them," he said numbly. Mrs. Weasley looked at him in shock.

"The Dursleys?! How can you think that Harry?" she exclaimed in horror.

"It's true. They say they don't like me and it's true, but everyone else says they _do_ like me but they don't, at least not really," he murmured in an oddly wistful voice.

"Oh darling, come here, we do like you," she said, going to pull Harry into a hug. Harry flinched violently at the move and stiffly shied away from an embrace.

"Please don't," he moaned.

"Harry," Mrs. Weasley started tearfully, "I'm not going to hurt you, darling. This isn't like the Dursleys. We all love you."

"Sirius doesn't," Harry said sadly, squirming back down so he was lying down again. Mrs. Weasley was too upset to help rearrange his pillows.

"Harry, Sirius loves you very much!" Mrs. Weasley protested

"No, that's what he thought until he found out I'm not like my dad and now he doesn't want me anymore," Harry said dejectedly. "I knew it would happen though. People can't live with me for very long before hating me. But I can give him his life back if I leave."

Harry closed his eyes and turned onto his side.

Mrs. Weasley looked at him with tears in her eyes. She hadn't known it was this bad.

She stood up to leave when she heard Harry call her name from the bed. She looked back to find begging green eyes upon her.

"Umm…" Harry murmured tiredly, turning his eyes from her abashedly, "could you stay with me? Just until I fall asleep? You don't have to but I just was wondering if maybe you wanted to sit down for a little while, if you're tired or something."

Mrs. Weasley gave him a sad smile and sat back down. "Of course I will," she said softly. Harry looked up at her guiltily, feeling bad about making her stay.

"If you're busy you don't have to. If you don't want to you could just go, really. I wouldn't mind..."

"Shh. It's okay, Harry, I want to stay with you. I'll be right here until you fall asleep," she said quietly, brushing his hair with her fingers soothingly. Harry's eyes slipped closed as he relaxed.

"Thank you," he murmured sleepily. "I'll go to sleep real soon, I promise."

Harry closed his eyes but kept intermittently opening them and glancing at Mrs. Weasley before closing them again.

"Harry, is there something you need, sweetie?" Mrs. Weasley asked gently as Harry opened his eyes again. He shook his head tiredly.

"No," he whispered, half-asleep. "I was just seeing if you were still there."

"I'm not leaving until you're asleep, Harry. I promise," she assured him.

Harry closed his eyes and nodded. Mrs. Weasley looked at him sympathetically as a tear slipped out from the corner of his closed eye, and dripped onto his pillow. She gently brushed his hair with her fingers to let him know she was still there.

True to her word, Mrs. Weasley stayed with him until she was sure Harry was asleep and a bit longer after. She kissed his forehead, which was still too hot for comfort, and went downstairs to see Sirius dozing on the couch. He jerked awake when she stepped on a squeaky stair and groggily sat up.

"Sirius," she said sadly as she entered the living room, "you really need to talk to Harry."

"What did he say?" Sirius asked worriedly.

"He thinks you don't want him anymore," she said with an accusing glare.

Sirius put his head into his hands and exhaled slowly. "I was going to talk to him the other day, but he was gone practically the whole day and then Ron and Draco both showed up and afterward, Harry went to bed early, and then these past few days he's been sick. I've been trying to talk to him, but things seem to keep coming up. When he gets better…"

The fireplace flared up and Snape stepped out carrying the vial with Harry's second dose of the potion looking annoyed.

"Hello Severus," Mrs. Weasley said with a sigh. Snape nodded at her.

"So, what did you find out about the potion?" Sirius asked, too stressed for the smug tone he'd been hoping for.

"It's fine," he grumbled, not liking to be wrong. "Just what he said, a mixture of some healing potions, pain relievers, fever reducers, and something for Harry's immune system."

"And was it made well?" Sirius asked.

Snape scowled at him. "Yes."

"Okay, can you _try_ to be a bit less hostile toward Hr. Callahan now?" Sirius asked, sounding a bit stressed.

Snape just grumbled and went to go wake Harry and give him the second dose of the potion.

Mrs. Weasley turned to Sirius with a sigh. "Harry also doesn't look like he's been sleeping."

"I know, but I check on him every night and he's always asleep when I do," he protested.

"Well, if you'd like I know a useful spell that'll let you know if he's awake or not and will wake you if he wakes up in the middle of the night," she offered.

"Really?" Sirius asked, sounding relieved. "Merlin, that would help a lot. I never knew there was a spell like that. Can you teach it to me?"

Mrs. Weasley smiled warmly at him, happy that he seemed to really be trying to help Harry now. "Sure Sirius, come into the kitchen so I can put this soup away and we'll go over it."

.

"No, leave me alone," Harry moaned, pushing Sirius's hands away from him.

Harry had seemed to get progressively worse throughout the day and when he had started vomiting violently, Sirius had first called Hr. Callahan through the fireplace who just said he was working frantically on a potion he thought might work and would be over as soon as he could. He had then called Snape who, in an act of desperation, left Draco at the Burrow so he would know his godson was safe while he hurried over to the Lighthouse. Surprisingly, Draco hadn't complained too much about the whole matter, as he was too worried for his friend to argue.

Snape had entered to find Sirius kneeling beside his godson in the bathroom as Harry threw up into the toilet, shaking and coated with beads of sweat. Snape had decided they needed to get Harry's fever down and drew a tepid bath, making sure it wasn't cold enough to give him the chills. Now the problem was getting the delirious boy into the bathtub.

"Harry, please," Sirius tried to reason with him, "if you go in wearing your pajamas they're going to get soaking wet."

Snape started pulling Harry's shirt up, but Harry pushed his hands away.

"We'll let you keep your boxers on, how's that?" Snape bargained.

"I don't want you to see my scars," Harry whimpered. "And I don't want to take a bath. I just don't feel good. Can I just go to bed?"

"Harry, we need to get your temperature down, kiddo," Sirius pleaded.

Harry just looked at him blankly.

"We're just going to have to put him in the water in his clothes on," Snape concluded.

The two worked together to get Harry into the tub where they finally convinced him to take off his shirt.

"He's lost weight," Snape said with a frown.

"I guess it's back to force feeding him," Sirius said with a sigh.

Suddenly, Hr. Callahan appeared in the doorway, seeming a bit out of breath.

"I think we've finally got it," he announced with a hopeful grin.

He gave the vial to Sirius who convinced Harry to drink it down. Minutes later, the effects were already beginning to show. Harry's temperature began dropping slowly but steadily.

"Siri?" Harry asked, looking a bit confused as he looked around at them and suddenly self-conscious. "Er, why am I in the bath with my pants on and an audience?"

"Harry, do you recognize everyone here? Do you know where you are?" Hr. Callahan asked cautiously.

Harry nodded looking around at them all a bit warily. "Have we formed some sort of cult without my knowledge?" he joked uncomfortably.

"Well, he's back," Sirius said with a laugh. Snape quickly retrieved some of Harry's dry pajamas and handed them to Sirius who put them on the counter. "We'll leave you to get dressed, Har, but I want you to take it easy, okay? You're getting better but you're still sick. Do you want me to stay with you?"

Harry shook his head, standing up in the bath and reaching for a towel. "I'm fine."

"Okay, well, if you need me, just call. I'll be right outside the door," Sirius said, closing the door behind them.

He shook Hr. Callahan's hand profusely and even Snape begrudgingly thanked the healer.

"Well, owl me if anything else goes wrong, though I think Harry will be up and about, ready to go off trying to save the world again by tomorrow," Hr. Callahan said with a grin before leaving.

As soon as Harry was out of the bathroom, he was immediately ushered into bed by his concerned godfather. Snape stuck around to assess how Harry was feeling while Sirius heated up some of Mrs. Weasley's soup now that Harry was finally in the mood to eat something.

Eventually, Harry slipped back to sleep to finish healing and Sirius settled into his chair to make sure Harry was indeed getting better and that it wasn't just a temporary thing. Snape promised to bring Draco by in the morning so the boys could talk and Snape could look Harry over to make sure he was okay.

It was only later that the two realized in surprise that they had been civil to each other the entire time. Both wished they had gotten in at least one well-placed insult or remark and vowed to make up for it the next time.

.

Harry looked up from his conversation with Draco to see four redheads cracking open his door. When they saw he was awake they all entered.

Harry was lying in his bed sitting up against his pillows, hair messy as usual and clad in a white t-shirt and his plaid drawstring pajama pants, while Draco sat back in his desk chair, feet propped up on the edge of the bed. The morning sun was shining through the window, casting cheery light over everything.

"Hey, Harry, how you feeling, mate?" Ron asked.

"Completely better, but Sirius has confined me to bed for the rest of the morning while he catches up on some sleep," Harry said.

"Well it's probably for the best," Fred said.

"You should have a day just to rest," George agreed.

"I think I got enough of that in the past couple of days," Harry pointed out.

"Harry, it's summer. Time for relaxation," Ginny said firmly. "Take advantage of being able to lie around and get rested up for having some fun."

"So what are you guys doing for the rest of the day?" Harry asked to change the subject.

"We're going to Diagon Alley for a bit," Ron said. "I guess there's no hope in you coming along then."

"No, I'm basically banned from there now. I don't even know if Sirius is going to let me go for my supplies. He might just get them himself," Harry said with a sigh. "He says it's too dangerous."

"Well, I reckon he's right," Ron said reluctantly. "You never know what sort of tricks the Death Eaters might pull to get at you."

"Thanks, Ron. Very reassuring," Harry said sarcastically.

"Well, we must depart," George said dramatically.

"Mum will want a full report on how you're doing," Fred added, ruffling Harry's hair with a laugh. Harry shot him a playful glare and attempted to smooth it back down.

"Get some rest, Harry," Ginny said fondly, giving him a quick peck on the forehead before following her brothers from the room, making Harry's face immediately flush.

"And Har," Ron said seriously, "can we talk later? Please? I think…I think we really need to talk."

Harry was slightly taken aback by the pleading look in Ron's face. He wanted to say no, all part of his pushing people away campaign that hadn't really been working too well up to that point, but couldn't bring himself to do that to his friend.

"Okay, yeah. Sure," he said quietly.

"Good. Um, then I'll talk to you later," he said before following the rest of his siblings out.

Draco looked at Harry and raised his eyebrow in amusement. "So, you're moving right along with Ginny, I see. You should really slow down, Harry, I mean, isn't it getting a bit physical really fast? You've only been crushing on her for a year now and a kiss on the forehead? At this phenomenal rate, who knows what might happen! You could be on the road to a life of debauchery and prostitution."

"Uh huh, and who was the last girl that kissed _you_ on the forehead?" Harry challenged.

"Oh yeah, who's the last girl you actually kissed?" Draco challenged in return.

Harry was silent.

"That's what I thought," Draco said smugly.

"I'd rather not be kissed at all than have Pansy Parkinson's lips even come within the vicinity of mine," Harry said with a smirk.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Touché. But please spare me the memory of that horrifying lack of judgment. It makes me want to vomit just thinking about it. Now Cho Chang on the other hand I understand to be a terrific snogger."

Harry's face contorted in horror and disgust as Draco laughed.

.

"Hey Har," Sirius said as he entered Harry's room a little later that day. He had just woken up from his recovery nap.

Harry looked up from the book he was reading. It was a Muggle book Kota had given to him as part of her campaign to make him read all the books she had read in school, or outside of it, that she felt were essential for everyone to be familiar with. She felt that Harry being a wizard was no excuse for him not to be educated in literature and therefore had been assigning him books all summer. "Whatcha reading?" Sirius asked, sitting on the edge of Harry's bed.

"The Crucible. Did you know they used to kill people just for being accused of being magical? In the book there's these girls who take everyone they don't like and accuse them of being witches and pretend that those people are hexing them. It would have been a disaster if Dudley had read this book, though that would require him actually being able to read, so I guess I was safe," Harry said with a grin.

"Harry, we need to talk," Sirius said gravely.

"Talk?" Harry asked in confusion. Sirius couldn't mean what Harry thought he meant. Sirius didn't do talks like that. "About what?"

"About a lot of things. I think…"

CRASH!

Harry's and Sirius's heads whipped around toward Harry's window where the sound had originated. Pig was hovering outside looking slightly dazed. Harry leaned over and let the owl in, immediately pulling off the piece of parchment attached to his leg.

The piece of paper was small, looking as if it had been quickly tore from something.

He turned it over to find Ginny's handwriting, only bigger and messier than usual.

_Something's happened. Come quick._

_ -Ginny_

Harry quickly handed Sirius the note.

The two exchanged a brief look before racing down to the fireplace.

.

Harry quickly walked into the kitchen where the Weasleys were located, along with, much to Harry's surprise, Dumbledore. Harry immediately knew something was terribly wrong. Mrs. Weasley sat at the table, weeping into her hands. Ginny and the twins were sitting around the table as well, all looking as if they were in shock.

Mr. Weasley was pacing back and forth frantically as he talked to Dumbledore.

"…and we were just walking and he was only behind us a small way's back, and I heard him call for me. I turned around but I…I couldn't get my wand out in time! They just grabbed him and Portkeyed away!"

"Who's _they_?" Dumbledore asked calmly, his eyes lacking their familiar twinkle.

"Um…two or three Death Eaters. It all happened so fast. Oh gods," Mr. Weasley said, looking absolutely panicked.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, very scared now. "What happened?"

Everyone looked up at him.

"They took him. They took Ron!" Mrs. Weasley sobbed hysterically. "They took my baby!"

…………………………………………………………………………..

**A/N: **Sorry once again about the review responses, but please review!


	20. Mortal Peril

**Author's Note: ** Hey everyone! Not much to say really this time around. collective gasp from audience. PK went to the interview with JK, which you can find more about on my yahoo group in her message entitled "Edinburgh." Thanks to my beta Senri who caught a lot of mistakes in this chapter. Senri, you rock. And please review! Right, so, on with the chapter!

...................................................................................

Harry looked around in shock.

"No," Harry whispered.

"Death Eaters kidnapped Ron?" Sirius asked, horrified. "But why?"

"Oh my God, it's because of me!" Harry gasped. He felt so dizzy with shock he felt as if he might collapse.

"Don't be ridiculous," Sirius said shakily.

"Don't you see? I was too well guarded. They couldn't get to me so they took Ron."

"Harry, sit down," Dumbledore said gently.

"No, I've got to go find him!"

"Harry, it's not your job to go find Ron," Dumbledore said firmly.

"It's my fault he was taken!" Harry yelled.

"This is a trap for you, Harry. They want you to go looking for him. You'll walk right into their hands," Dumbledore said regretfully.

"Well, if they want me to come to them, they'll have to lead me to Ron. It's the only chance we have! I already know the Order has no clue where the Death Eaters are hidden. It's the only way!"

"And what do you think they'll do to you when you get there? They will kill you and they will kill Ron too," Dumbledore said grimly.

At this, Mr. Weasley paled and Mrs. Weasley let out another sob.

"At least we'll have a chance! What are _you _going to do? Keep searching for their hideout and hope you'll find it this time? You've been doing that for over a month without any luck!" Harry yelled.

"For now, that's all we can do," the headmaster said sadly.

Harry shook his head. "I'm going to go look for him," he said angrily, stalking to the door determinedly. Sirius quickly called for him to stop, but Harry flung open the door and made to step outside.

But he couldn't. He was pushed back by some force. He tried again and was still pushed back. He whirled around and looked furiously at Dumbledore.

"I've put wards around the Burrow, the Lighthouse and Snape Manor and the Floo system will only allow you between the three. You can't leave, Harry. I'm sorry."

Harry slammed the door angrily. "You can't do that! You can't just lock me up while Ron's out there!"

"I'm sorry, Harry. I hope you will eventually understand."

"So what if Death Eaters attack here, or there's some other emergency? Am I just going to be trapped inside?" he asked bitterly.

"If there is an emergency like that the wards will let you out, but nothing like that is going to happen. This is for your own good, Harry," Dumbledore said sternly.

"Albus, let's stop arguing about this," said Mr. Weasley. "We need to get started looking for Ron. We need to call the Order together and..."

"Arthur," Dumbledore interrupted, "for now at least, the wards include your family as well. And Sirius, I hope you don't mind Miss Granger staying with you for a while as I'm including her in them as well."

"WHAT?" Mr. Weasley bellowed.

"You are all too emotionally involved. It would interfere with the search."

"The search hasn't done anything yet!" Harry yelled. "Sirius, please, tell him to let me go!" he pleaded.

"No Harry. There's no way you're going to go get yourself killed," Sirius said firmly.

"Sirius please!"

"NO, Harry. I've already lost you once and I am NOT losing you again," Sirius said sternly.

"Maybe we should listen to Harry. If he can get Ron back..." Mr. Weasley started cautiously.

"Arthur, what are you doing?" Sirius yelled furiously.

"I want my son back!" Mr. Weasley shouted back at him. "And if Harry's our only chance..."

"No. We are NOT sending Harry to the bloody SLAUGHTER! He's already DIED playing hero. What are you THINKING?" Sirius yelled, enraged. "Hasn't he been through enough?"

"Lucius Malfoy hates me! What do you think he's going to do to my son! We've got to get him out of there! Besides, Harry defeated the Dark Lord, he can handle some Death Eaters!" Mr. Weasley yelled, sounding slightly crazed.

"Dad, please don't," Fred said weakly.

"Arthur, stop it!" Mrs. Weasley yelled.

"Albus, let Harry go. He can find Ron! I'll go with him! I NEED MY SON BACK!!" Mr. Weasley bellowed.

"Dad, no! This isn't the way!" Ginny yelled.

"Mr. Weasley's right! I need to go for Ron to stand a chance! I've done this sort of thing before!" Harry insisted.

"Damn you Arthur! Stop this!" Sirius yelled.

"ENOUGH!" Dumbledore bellowed. Everyone went silent. "Harry is not going. Sirius, get Harry out of here. I'll come by later with Miss Granger and update you on the situation. Arthur, calm down. You are going to regret things you are saying later so we're ending this conversation. I am going to go talk with Severus and Draco to see if they know anything helpful and I'm going to start the search. Meanwhile, everybody needs to calm down."

Mr. Weasley slumped into a chair and put his face in his hands. Harry could tell he was crying. Harry looked toward the ceiling and blinked away his own tears.

Sirius led him away. Harry had no energy left in him to fight his case.

When they arrived back at the Burrow, Harry was feeling very numb.

"Harry, you have to understand. You'd be killed," Sirius said quietly.

"I'd deserve it," Harry said numbly.

"Don't ever say that, Harry. You know that's not true," Sirius said, putting his hands on his godson's shoulders and looking into his eyes.

"He's such a good friend to me. He took care of me when I was sick, and I only put him in danger. I just ruin people's lives. I destroy everything."

"That's not true, Harry."

"No, it is. Draco lost his father because he couldn't curse me. Snape lost his spy position because of me. I put people in danger all the time. I almost got Draco killed by convincing him to go back for his stuff with me. Cedric died just because he was near me. All the people in Hogwarts could have died just because Voldemort wanted me."

"Listen to me," Sirius interrupted, "you've made my life a thousand times better," Sirius insisted.

"No," Harry said bitterly. "You had to eat rats and put yourself in danger because of me. You had to give up your life to take care of me. Everyone I care about is always put in danger because of me."

"Harry..." Sirius started, but Harry quickly pulled away from him.

"Don't, you'll curse yourself even more. I already ruined your life. I'm such a freak."

"Harry, no..."

"I just...I just need to be alone," Harry said, backing away before belting up the stairs.

Sirius heard the bedroom door slam. He didn't know what to do, but eventually decided to let Harry have his space.

...

Half an hour later, Draco arrived, giving a curt nod to Sirius before rushing up to Harry's room.

Draco knocked and entered Harry's room without waiting for a response. Harry was pacing his room like a caged animal.

"It's not your fault you know," Draco said.

"Ha!" Harry said bitterly.

"If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I'm the one who always told my dad what good friends you two were. I'm sorry."

"Don't be stupid, it's not your fault. It wasn't exactly top secret information."

"Well, Dumbledore's made it so the wards will recognize me as well. Don't know why he'd think _I'd _go looking for Weasley..."

"Draco, please," Harry said pleadingly.

"Sorry."

Hermione burst into the room in tears. She ran over to Harry and threw her arms around his neck and he hugged her tightly.

"Harry, we have to get him back," she said tearfully.

"I know. First we need to get past these stupid wards..."

"Wait, you're planning on going after him?" Draco asked incredulously. "Are you bloody mad?"

"Of course I'm going after him. He's my friend."

"But the wards..."

"I think I've figured out how to get passed them," Harry said. "It was actually what Lucius did to your room that gave me the idea. Fire. Dumbledore said that if we were in danger, where the only way out would be to get outside, then the wards would let us out."

"Oh brilliant," Draco said sarcastically. "So whose house are we going to burn down?"

"The Burrow. Ron once told me that they've covered their house with spells so that the walls and floors won't burn since they had so many close calls with Fred and George's experiments exploding. If we lit a fire in one room, it wouldn't spread to the others."

"Oh Merlin, I can't believe I'm going to be going on a rescue mission for Weasley," Draco groaned.

"You aren't coming," Harry said quickly.

"Harry, don't even start that," Hermione said menacingly. "I'm coming. You can't do this alone and I am getting Ron back."

"And I'm coming too," Draco said firmly. Harry and Hermione looked at him incredulously. "What? I'm just going to make sure my only friend doesn't get killed because then I'd just be too pathetic to return to school. Besides, you need my help. Who knows Death Eaters more than me? Neither of you that's for sure."

Harry sighed in defeat. He wasn't going to waste time arguing.

"All right, then. Let's start brainstorming."

"But we don't even know where he is," Hermione protested.

"Don't worry. Give it a few hours and they'll tell us, or Harry at least. They're using Ron as bait for you, Harry, so they'll let you worry for a bit and then tell you where he is. You might want to leave your window open for awhile."

"Just like that? I don't know, I mean, if they did that, Harry could just tell the Order to go there," Hermione pointed out.

"They're not that idiotic. There will be a catch," Draco said knowingly.

"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked.

"We wait," Draco said calmly. "And then, we figure out how the hell we're going to pull this off."

.....

A few hours later, a large black bird flew in through Harry's window and dropped a letter on his lap. The Dark Mark was pressed into the wax seal.

"This is it," Draco said nervously. "Go on, open it."

Harry took a deep breath and broke the seal, unfolding the letter. He began to read, as Draco and Hermione read over his shoulder.

_Potter,_

_As you are probably aware by now, I have taken something I am sure you want back. Of course, everything comes with a price. I propose a simple trade: you for your friend. I will kill your friend at midnight after the seventh day unless you've accepted my offer before then. If you decide to meet my demands, a Portkey is waiting for you on the steps to the guesthouse at my manor, which I'm sure my obliging son will tell you how to find. This Portkey can only be activated by you and if you try to bring anyone with you, we will know and will kill your friend immediately. You will come alone if you want your friend alive._

_Hope to see you soon, Potter. Your friend screams for you._

_-L.M._

Once he was done reading, the letter burst into green flames, leaving no trace of it.

"Well, here we go. We've got our way in," Draco said with a gulp. "Sorry my dad's such a bastard, by the way."

"Wait, but now this is sounding like a suicide mission if they'll know if we come," Hermione said nervously.

"Well, I'll have to go alone," Harry said.

"Oh don't worry about that. It's a bit of a bluff, well sort of. You see, he'd be able to detect Dumbledore and the people in the Order, or at least most of them, but not Granger and me. See, this isn't the first time Dumbledore's had his little anti-evil club all rounded up together. The Order was around fighting the Dark Lord during his last reign, before you brought him down the first time, Harry. Anyways, the Death Eaters, or at least the top ones like my father, suspected or knew who most of them were, just as they basically know who a lot of the top Death Eaters are. Both sides have ways of tracking these people. There's one on you, Harry, though it's blocked most of the time. You see, each side has its way to block against the tracking most of the time, but there are certain kinds of wards that'll make blocks against them impossible. That means they can't find you now, with all the wards around the Lighthouse, but as soon as you step onto their territory, the wards they've no doubt put up will make it so they'll be able to track you as long as you're inside of them."

"Well, what about you two then? Wouldn't they be able to track you two inside as well?" Harry asked dejectedly. This was sounding hopeless.

"No. Granger's just a Mudbl...er...Muggleborn, sorry there. She's not significant enough to track. They actually have to do complicated spells to track somebody, and she's not worth the effort, no offense, Granger. As for me, well, my father made the mistake awhile ago to put a spell on me so I couldn't be tracked with the spells that they know, as he was head of that department at the time. If there's one type of person a Death Eater trusts less than the enemy, it's another Death Eater, so my father wanted to make sure they couldn't find me in case they turned on him for some reason," Draco explained.

"Well, there's only one thing we can do then. They're using bait, we will too," Harry said determinedly.

"You," Hermione said quietly. It was the only thing they could do.

"Well, it looks like we have a lot of planning to do then _and_ we're going to have to keep it a secret. There's no way the adults would let us do this, and they can't go instead. They're all tracked," Draco said.

"We'll have to do it ourselves," Hermione said.

"This might take a few days to get everything worked out," Draco said.

"Well, let's start figuring this out then," said Harry. "If Professor Snape starts to get suspicious of you coming over here all the time, just tell him I'm very distraught and I need you for moral support. I'll make sure Sirius thinks I'm upset too so the stories don't clash. Hermione, you're staying here, so that won't be a problem."

"We're really going to do this," Hermione said taking a deep breath. "We're really going to get him back."

"Yeah, we're going to get him back," Harry said determinedly.

.....

The first thing they were going to need was an escape plan. It would do them no good to get Ron and then be stuck there. A Portkey was their best option. Hermione immediately began doing research, with Draco bringing her piles of books he was sneaking from the massive library at Snape manor.

She, being Hermione, quickly found a way to make a Portkey with a password to activate it, though they really only had one shot to try to make it. If the ministry caught Harry doing magic again, he would be expelled and if either boy did it, their godfathers would be notified and they would suspect what was going on. Hermione, on the other hand, could use her one warning to try to make it and then send a letter home telling her parents her wand accidentally went off.

She tried to make one out of Harry's shoe, so they could be sure the Death Eaters wouldn't take it away, but it glowed purple instead of blue, indicating it had been made incorrectly and would take them in the direction of their destination but would land them somewhere short of it. How short of it, they had no idea. But they needed a Portkey that would get them safely to the Burrow, especially if Ron was injured. There was only one option, and that was asking an adult. Harry knew precisely who to go to.

....

Harry flooed to the Burrow under the guise of needing to be with the Weasley kids at this time of distress. Yet Harry didn't go upstairs where the three were huddled together in the twins' room, or to Ron's room where Mrs. Weasley hadn't left since the day before when it had happened. Instead, he went into the kitchen where from speaking to Ginny through owl post, he knew he'd find Mr. Weasley, watching the Weasley clock with a numb expression, just waiting for Ron's hand to switch to something other than "Mortal Peril."

Mr. Weasley looked up at him with bloodshot eyes and Harry was certain he had not slept a wink the night before.

"Mr. Weasley," he said softly, "I need a Portkey without a fixed starting destination, only a fixed ending one."

"I already tried Portkeying out of here. The wards won't allow them if it's one of us that's trying to leave," he said tiredly.

"I figured that. I don't need one that's going to leave though," he said quietly.

Mr. Weasley stared at him momentarily.

"What's the ending destination you're thinking of?" he asked.

"The Burrow. Hermione's done a bit of research and she thinks the wards will only prevent us from leaving, but not from coming back in so it should work."

Mr. Weasley looked at him as though studying him.

"I can't make one like that, but I can get one."

"How soon?"

"Either tonight or tomorrow I think. I can talk to a few people and pull some strings," Mr. Weasley said, looking more alive now that he had a purpose, and hope.

"Okay, just owl it to me the second you get it. Obviously, word of this can't get back to certain people," Harry said quietly.

Mr. Weasley nodded and Harry got up to leave.

"Harry," Mr. Weasley called quietly. Harry turned around. Mr. Weasley was looking at him with a desperate expression.

"I'll bring him back or die trying," Harry assured him.

Mr. Weasley looked down guiltily and nodded.

....

"Okay, here's the prisoner drill," Draco said. "No matter what type of prisoner, Lucius..." Harry noticed Draco had been much having a much easier time disassociating himself from his father lately, "...will not be present at the capture unless absolutely necessary. His ideal situation will be just like the Dark Lord's was with this. He'll want a few Death Eater guards to capture you, take your wand and such, lock you in the dungeon while they go present your wand to him. This demonstrates their loyalty to him and also is used as a fear tactic with prisoners. They'll leave a couple to guard the door, but since those dungeons are impossible to get out of from the inside once you're locked in, they won't necessarily be the brightest blokes either. All they need to do is rough you up a bit and let you know that you'll eventually be given to their leader, then leave you for a while to get you good and scared. There's something about being locked in a concrete cell without any way of knowing when you'll be brought out or what will happen when you are, that tends to terrify people, making them a lot easier to deal with. Fear is a powerful weapon, after all. Oh, and they'll definitely put you in the same cell as Weasley. Fear also brings people subject to that fear closer together, making it easier to manipulate them by using the other one. Perfect for them and perfect for us."

....

"Malfoy, are you even paying attention?" Hermione asked sternly.

"Yes, ma'am," Draco said mockingly.

"Well you'd better because one of these charms I'm trying to teach you might save your arse in there. Now, when you say the Silencing Charm it's _Silencio_ with a sharp jab of the wand. Yes like that."

The three were practicing with each of their toothbrushes so they wouldn't use any real magic and alert anyone before it was time.

"I feel stupid," Draco whispered to Harry, jabbing his toothbrush in the air.

"You'd feel more stupid if you couldn't do it later," Harry pointed out. "Besides, we look just as ridiculous."

Hermione cleared her throat and the boys snapped to attention.

"Okay, now here's one to open doors from a distance..."

.....

"Not quite, 'Mione. Swish it all the way through _Expelli _and flick it on the _arm _and say keep it pointed during the _us_. _Expelliarmus_, good. That's perfect. Oh and Draco, it's a jab on the _ment_. Impedi_ment_a. Good. Now we're going to work on shields and defensive spells. I learned some really good ones last year when the professors were training me up. We're going to start with..."

"Shh..." Draco hushed him suddenly. The three strained their ears and sure enough, there were footsteps coming toward Harry's room. They all quickly kicked their sticks under Harry's bed.

Draco quickly sat down in Harry's desk chair while Harry and Hermione quickly climbed onto his bed and leaned back against the wall.

"What if the Order doesn't find him?" Hermione asked, putting on a sad voice.

"Well, I know during the last war the Order found prisoners a few times when the ministry never did. That's why they're so much more afraid of the Order," Draco adlibbed. "If anyone can find Weasley it's them."

"I just wish they'd let me help," Harry put in. "I mean, it's me they want. I should be out there..."

There was the predicted knock at the door. Sirius opened it and entered giving them a sad smile.

"How are you all holding up?"

Harry looked away. Hermione took a shuddering breath and blinked a lot. Draco shrugged.

"Right, bad question. I brought you all up some sandwiches," he said, placing a platter on Harry's nightstand. "It'll all turn out all right."

Harry was beginning to feel bad. Sirius had been so nice about the whole thing, and Harry knew he would be very disappointed when Harry disobeyed him again. After this, Sirius would _really_ hate him.

"Thanks Siri," Harry said quietly. His godfather nodded at him sadly before leaving the room.

The three waited until the footsteps faded away and they could hear bustling around in the kitchen before each grabbing a sandwich half in one hand and their stick in their other.

"Okay, so here's how you do your basic shield..."

....

Errol arrived with the Portkey from Mr. Weasley on the third day since Ron's kidnapping in the guise of a small key.

The three agreed that they would do it that night. The day was mostly spent practicing spells, charms, shields, etc. Draco went home for dinner with Professor Snape and Harry and Hermione went downstairs for dinner for the first night since it had happened. Harry figured he owed Sirius that much.

Neither Harry nor Hermione could eat much as nervousness made their stomachs churn, but luckily Sirius took their loss of appetite as part of their grief. Harry couldn't even bring himself to look at Sirius, since each time he did, either images of the good times they had had that summer cropped up, or the night after he and Draco had broken the rules the first time, when Sirius had yelled at him. Harry wasn't sure which made him feel worse.

....

That night, Hermione sent an owl to her parents right before Draco flooed back over. Harry told Sirius they were going to go over to the Weasleys to see how they were doing.

The three flooed to the Burrow. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were now both in the kitchen staring at the clock obsessively, just waiting for a change. They didn't even register the arrival of three guests as the teens slipped upstairs.

They had to get one more thing, so they knocked on the twins' bedroom door, hoping they wouldn't get suspicious.

"What are you all doing here?" Fred asked weakly when he opened the door. He wasn't that surprised to see Harry and Hermione, but Draco was a bit odd to see hanging around the Burrow at times like this.

"We just wanted to see how you all were holding up, and to hear if you had any news," Hermione lied. Fred motioned them inside.

"Well, Mum's doing terrible, so is Dad," Fred said sadly. "They've just been staring at that clock forever. At least Mum's come out of Ron's room though. At least in the kitchen, Dad can manage to get her to drink tea, even if she won't eat anything."

"And how are you guys?" Harry asked.

"We're...well, we're holding in there," George said tiredly. "We're just so mad that they're not letting us help. We're of age and everything, and Bill, Charlie, and Percy are all helping on the search, but we can't."

"Well, it's for the best really," Harry said. "I mean, you're parents are so distraught now, I'd hate to think what it would do to them to have to worry about another one of you. No matter what happens, you two and Ginny really need to be here for your parents right now," he said significantly, hoping the twins would remember it later.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's just so horrible feeling so helpless," Fred said miserably.

"Well, hopefully, Ron'll be back soon," Harry said. "We're going to go check on Ginny, all right?"

The twins nodded as the three left.

"Got 'em?" Harry asked Draco quietly.

Draco nodded and held out the three fake wands he'd stolen from the twins' room. He stuck one in his pocket and handed the two others to Harry and Hermione.

The three continued up the stairs, slipping quietly passed Ginny's room. Harry reached up and pulled the cord to let down the staircase into the attic. A plume of dust came out and the three muffled their coughing against their sleeves.

"I guess they don't go up here very often," Harry mused.

"There's dust on my robes," Draco whined. Harry and Hermione rolled their eyes and climbed the stairs.

"All right, lets take this stuff down to Ron's room, or at least put it out in the hall," Harry said, eyeing the several boxes, trunks, and such full of old things. The ghoul was staring at them in surprise, not having had guests to the attic in a very long time.

"Ohhhhhh..." it moaned in an unearthly way, creeping toward them menacingly.

"Oh don't even start," Hermione scolded. The ghoul huffed and went back to clanging things against the pipes.

The three began moving the things quietly out of the attic and into Ron's room, Draco complaining the entire time.

When moving one of the last chests into Ron's room, the three found Ginny standing in her brother's doorway, arms crossed over her chest.

"What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.

"Looking for something?" Harry tried.

"You're going after him, aren't you? You've found a way passed the wards."

The three exchanged a look.

"Ginny, you can't tell anyone until we're gone. If anyone stops us, there's no chance to save him," Hermione said seriously.

"I'm coming with you," she said firmly.

"Er...I'm going to go get those last few boxes," Draco said quickly.

"I'll help you," Hermione said, following him out.

"Ginny, I'm sorry. You can't come," Harry said apologetically.

"I can help! He's my brother! You have to let me come. You can't leave me around here doing nothing while you three go risk your lives to save him!" Ginny protested.

"Ginny, please listen. We have a plan and it's pretty detailed. It only will work with three people and Draco, Hermione, and I have been going over it for the past few days so it has to be us," Harry said quietly.

"I am not staying behind like some damn damsel in distress while you go out there and risk your life for the thousandth time!" Ginny hissed furiously.

"You're not a damsel in distress, Gin. I know you're brave, but think of your parents. They're already so upset over Ron, if they had to worry about you or Fred or George, they'd crack! I love your parents and I couldn't do that to them," Harry insisted.

"I've already seen you die, Harry!" Ginny protested angrily. "What do you think it's going to be like for me to be here just waiting to know if I've lost you again?"

Harry blinked. He didn't know what to say. "Ginny, I'm sorry. It's the only way. I won't die again. We've got it planned out perfectly. Everything will be fine. Ron and the rest of us will be back here in a few hours, and though I'll be grounded until the end of the century, I'll be back as well and hopefully that will be the end of all the excitement for a while."

"Harry?" Hermione said quietly from the door. "We're ready. We'll wait for you upstairs."

"Ginny, if you can, please get your mum out of the kitchen for a while. It would be best if she didn't watch my hand on the clock until we're good and gone," Harry said sympathetically.

Ginny nodded, looking away angrily.

"Well," Harry said quietly after Hermione left, "I'm off then. Don't worry, we'll bring Ron back," he said, turning to leave.

Ginny grabbed his shoulder and turned him back around. She seized the back of his head with one of her hands and pressed her lips to his in a kiss. Before Harry could even register what was happening, she pulled away and looked him straight in the eye.

"Bring yourself back as well, or I swear I will bring you back from the grave and kill you myself," she said firmly, before marching passed him and going down the stairs.

Harry stood there for a moment, stunned. He touched his fingers to his lips, unsure of what had just happened. After a moment, he shook himself and quickly went up into the attic, shutting the trap door behind him.

"Ready?" Harry asked after locking the door. The other two nodded nervously.

"Oh God, I hope this works," Hermione said anxiously.

"All I can say is if I end up getting disfigured, somebody's going to die," Draco warned.

He pulled open the window and pressed his hand against the invisible barrier that kept them all trapped.

Harry pulled out a box of matches and a bunch of paper and alcohol-covered rags from Draco's bottomless bag. He also pulled out Draco's two brooms and set them near the window. He spread out the flammable materials all over the floor and finally struck a match against the box. He held up the small flame. The other two gave a nervous nod of assent and Harry threw the match to the corner farthest away from the window. The rags and papers immediately lit and the fire began to spread.

Harry struck another match and tossed it into another corner. He backed up to the window where Draco still had his hand pressed against the invisible barrier. All they could do was wait.

The ghoul scowled at them and howled indignantly.

"Oh shut it," Hermione said in annoyance, "it's not like it can hurt you. You'll have your little haunting grounds back to normal in no time."

The ghoul pouted and clanged the pipes half-heartedly.

The room began to fill with smoke, the small window not being enough to drain it from the room.

Just as the three began to cough, Draco stumbled forward, his hand out the window. He grinned back at them. They had bypassed the wards.

Draco swung his legs out the window and Harry handed him his broom, which he hopped onto and hovered right outside.

Hermione was the next through. Draco pulled her onto the back of his broom and she reluctantly wrapped her arms around his waist to keep from falling off.

Harry squeezed through with the bag, coughing loudly, and awkwardly maneuvered himself onto his broom. He turned back to the window and pointed his wand inside. With a quick spell, the flames disappeared along with the burnt remains of the rags and papers. Now there would be no evidence of what they had done, and no way for the adults to figure out how they had gotten passed the wards. Sirius would be informed of his expulsion from Hogwarts soon.

As Harry swung the bottomless rucksack onto his back and the three of them swiveled their brooms around and set off into the night in the direction of Malfoy Manor.

....

Meanwhile, downstairs, Ginny had pulled her mum from the kitchen into the living room telling her she had just gotten word that somebody was onto something in regards to rescuing Ron.

Mrs. Weasley had desperately begged her daughter for more information, but Ginny just kept saying that she couldn't say anything but that Mrs. Weasley would find out soon.

In the kitchen, Mr. Weasley watched with bated breath as he watched Harry's hand switch to 'Mortal Peril' and then to 'Traveling.'

..............................................................................

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Harry going on a risky heroic rescue-mission? Never!! Looks back at chapter Oh wait...maybe. Lol, hmm..who'd a thunk it? Yup, poor Draco interrupted at a bad time, but we love him anyways. I'm completely with you. What _is_ more fun than sick Harry? I can't think of any, except for maybe some other ways of Harry torture, but sickness is definitely a fun one. Delirious Harry's always fun because then you never know what he might say. evil grin lol, don't worry, the Harry pain isn't over yet. I'm glad you're seeing how Harry's pulling people together, and he doesn't even realize it. We should just keep making Harry sick...maybe it's the answer to world peace!! Maybe not. Lol. The version and the yahoo one aren't two different stories, the uncut/yahoo version's just longer. As you'll see now, the yahoo version's just gotten to Harry's bout of sickness. It's just moving slower because it has more stuff in it. "Harry in the and blushes Well, er, I don't think it's necessary for me to comment on that..."

Hahaha, that made me laugh so hard. I'm so glad you like the uncut version with the Harry and Ron fight. He definitely picked the worst things he could have said, but when you're mad, I guess that's sort of what you try to do if you're really that furious.

**Stahchild, Savoy Truffle **(lol, I'm glad you liked delusional Harry. He's kind of like a little kid, which always makes him seem sweet. No, Harry's not becoming gay, though he does have very close friendships with his two guy friends, especially Ron, which, if you consider what they've been through, isn't all that surprising. But their love is a brotherly one. Thanks for the interesting laugh imitation, lol.), **XxGoddessOfImaginaryLightxX **(I'm glad you're liking the angst and the alternate ending. Hahaha, yeah, you would think that red hair would have given Ron away. Thanks for coming to the chat! Lol, yes, sure we did talk about avocados, but that's alright because I love avocados! Hahaha. I'll see about setting up the next chat!), **Dana (MP) **(I'm working on the deleted scenes and will probably post a few later this week, but I'm holding off on some of them that come nearer to the end so you all don't get hints at what's going to happen. I'm coming along well with the alternate ending to Recnac, though it might be a little longer until I post that.), **bast4 **(lol, obviously I can't tell you a lot of the stuff you asked for, but I can tell you that yes, Lucius is in charge of the Death Eaters, as Draco told Harry earlier in the fic. And by all means, feel free to ramble), **saz, jess, angel74 **(I'm glad the twist came as a surprise. I'm just keeping you all on your toes! Now update!!), **Musicstarlover, Marci018 **(I'm glad you liked the Harry/Ron talk. It was fun to write. I'm so glad you like the angst as I'm getting a few complaints. As long as I know somebody likes it, it's easier to keep writing and posting, so thanks!), **yellowpages **(Really? Ron's one of my fave characters! And it really wasn't his fault he got kidnapped. Nothing that has happened to Harry is Ron's fault really. Well, if you don't like Ron, you might like the alternate version on my yahoo group with Harry and Ron's fight.), **Lia Tween **(Lol, that would be quite interesting to have you watching me type every letter. locks doors haha), **Lupin123, Whispyraven **(I'm sorry you don't really like this story. I just have to stay true to what I want to do with it, though. I'm glad you're finding scenes you like, but if this story isn't what you're looking for, you should look through my favorites to see if you find anything you'd like to read more and move on.), **ThreeToedSloth **(Lol, I'm glad I seem to have caught you by surprise with this little turn of events. I can't answer your question about Laura, but good observation. Keep up the sleuthing), **MissLilyStar, torifire126, jo0609, jilleah black **(lol, well, you'll just have to wait and see what happens to our dear Ron...), **LupinAndSiriusLover, Thunder's Shadow **(lol, ah yes, poor Ron's gone, but hey, now you get some cool action!), **kneh13, Jenn the Freak **(Thanks for reviewing! Lol, I have the chapter ready now...hopefully you're still not repeating the word, but if you are, you've finally hit the one! Yeah, I doubt Harry would react well to be putting into any kind of therapy, but especially group therapy, as he's really too private for that. I just like prolonging the agony, so I keep putting off the talk), **Dea Puella, angelsleeping , sou85a **(yeah, they say emotional abuse can be far more damaging than physical abuse, and the two coupled is what Harry got. Poor baby. I like Ron too!), **gina87, Lourdes, ChildOfDarkness **(Never fear, Harry pain isn't over. I'm just like you in whackoness in that arena, so don't worry), **Ariana Dumbledore, HaRrYrOxMuHsOx, Lorie1101 **(Thank you! I'm glad you liked both versions of the fic. It's always good to be suspicious so keep on sleuthing!), **Hp-Azn **(lol, thanks! I'm glad you like the angst!), **anonymous, Magnolia Lane **(Thanks! I'm so glad you liked the chapter so much!), **moonfyre **(really? I've never read a fic before where Ron gets kidnapped! I guess I got in at the right time.), **Padawan Jan-AQ, DreamersDisease **(No, not two different stories, the uncut/yahoo version's just longer. As you'll see now, the yahoo version's just gotten to Harry's bout of sickness. It's just moving slower because it has more stuff in it.), **EriEka127, lost angel92, Necara **(no, they aren't two different fics, the uncut/yahoo version's just longer. As you'll see now, the yahoo version's just gotten to Harry's bout of sickness. It's just moving slower because it has more stuff in it.), **monica85, Ohana, fantagal, Von **(lol, sorry! Review responses are back. I'll keep the idea of review responses being on the yahoo group for future fics, though.), **hessian **(lol, thanks!), **Siri Kat, shadowsfriend **(unfortunately, this is the last of this particular series if you'd call it that. After this I'll be moving on to different ideas. But I'm so glad you're liking the fic!), **Nation El-Diablo **(there's more stuff on my yahoo group, but it's a little behind this fic because of all the uncut scenes in it), **Autumn Breeze **(no, Harry doesn't have aids, but you'll find out what's been going on in a little while. wink ), **Shikatanai **(yeah, Harry's got a lot to deal with and thank God he hasn't started cutting because of it. Lol, don't worry, I won't tell Harry you like torturing him if you don't tell him I like it...though that might be a bit obvious by now, lol.), **Tessa **(Thank you! I'm glad you started reading them and even happier that you like them!), **Wynjara, shadow-phoenix1502, Amy Da Great, lalaluu, Viskii, ginnygal189, acciodanrad9 **(thanks! I'm glad you like Drama/Angst, since that's the categories of this story. Yeah, Draco had some bad timing, but we love him anyways. I'm glad you liked delirious Harry. He was fun to write.), **Annay, rukrifurpaw, Tmctflyboy, Erin, littletoaster **(Thank you so much!), **M, GhostMagic19** (lol, I'm so glad you like my fics!), **parts-of-a-fish-girl, chip, Annapuma, venus4280, Bluerain22 **(Lol, I'm so glad you like the story! Don't worry, I update about once a week and am not abandoning this story. Thank you for reading! I'm so glad you've found and enjoy my fics)


	21. The Rescue

**Author's Note: **Hey all! I'm sorry to those I told I'd update yesterday, but I went on a hiking excursion. My friend, David, and I hiked to a waterfall!! We could drink the water and then we played in the waterfall (it was so pretty!). We climbed down through a hollowed out tree and there were these natural waterslides that I fell on, lol. We also saw this little pond thing that looked like it was full of toxic waste (it's supposedly full of iron deposits). It had solid green bubbles on the surface that you could pick up with a stick. We sat on a porch for a while of the house of some family that weren't there and ate fruit off the trees. Then we got incredibly lost on the drive home because Mapquest apparently left out a pretty key step in the directions, so we coped by singing Switchfoot at the top of our lungs, which is pretty bad since we are both horrible singers, lol. Anyways, it was a really fun day and very adventurous, but I was too exhausted to post by the end of it. But here it is now! Hope you all enjoy!

................................................................................................

Sirius was sitting in the living room, trying to think of what to do about Harry. He wasn't sure if it was the right time to have a talk with his godson, with Hermione staying with them and Ron gone. He supposed it wasn't, but was frustrated. He had been meaning to have a talk with Harry for so long now, but things kept coming up that was preventing it. He had promised himself he would do it as soon as Harry got over that last bout of sickness, but of course, Ron had been taken, and unless the redhead was returned soon, he wasn't sure when the right time _would_ be.

Suddenly, an owl flew through the window, dropping a letter into his hand.

_Dear Mr. Black,_

_We have received intelligence that your godson, Harry Potter, performed magic outside of school for the second time at seventeen minutes past nine this evening. Being the second breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery_....

Sirius was interrupted as the fire in the fireplace flared up. His mind was buzzing. Harry performed magic? But why? It must have been a mistake.

He looked over to see who was coming through the fireplace and found Snape stepping out, looking extremely panicked, something very odd for the normally composed man.

"Black, please tell me they're still here!"

"Harry and Draco? They went to the Burrow. This letter says Harry performed magic. I don't understand," Sirius said confusedly. Something was wrong, he knew that much but his brain wasn't registering what it could be.

"I found this on Draco's bed!" Snape yelled, waving around a piece of parchment with writing on it. "They've found some way around the wards. They're going after the Weasley boy!"

The blood instantly drained from Sirius's face. He raced to the fireplace and threw in a handful of the glittering powder in.

Sirius burst into the living room of the Burrow, Snape right behind him. Mrs. Weasley stood up hopefully, thinking the two might have news.

"Where are they?" Sirius yelled frantically.

Ginny stood. "They're already gone," she said calmly.

"NO!" Sirius screamed racing up the stairs, followed by Snape. The two raced up the flights, calling out their godsons' names desperately.

The twins came out of their room, watching the two in bewilderment as they raced passed the floor and followed them curiously.

The two men raced all the way to the top floor, looking into Ron's room desperately.

"Hey, what's all the stuff from the attic doing out here?" Fred asked in confusion.

Snape pushed passed him and pulled the cord to the attic.

The four quickly climbed up the pull-down staircase. The room was completely bare aside from the ghoul who was moaning in the corner. The twins looked around in amazement.

"Who cleaned out the attic?" George asked.

Four sets of eyes landed on the open window. Sirius ran over and pressed his hand against the open space, feeling it being pushed back by the still-intact ward.

Snape whipped around angrily and began making his way down the stairs.

"How the _hell_ did they get past the wards?" he fumed.

Sirius was next out, followed by the twins who were just beginning to grasp what was going on.

"What's going on?" they asked as the four of them reached the living room once again.

"They've gone after him. Harry, Hermione and Draco have gone after Ron," Sirius said in disbelief.

Mrs. Weasley gasped. Her eyes lit up with hope. Fred and George exchanged a look of mixed emotions, both of hope and fear. They didn't want to lose another brother, even if he wasn't technically related to them, but now there was a chance of getting Ron back.

Snape contacted Dumbledore as Sirius went back to the Lighthouse to see if Harry had left a similar letter as the one Draco had left for Snape. Sure enough, lying on Harry's pillow was a neatly folded letter. He grabbed it and frantically read it through.

_Sirius,_

_By the time you get this letter, I'll already be gone. We've figured out a way passed the wards and Draco, Hermione, and I are going after Ron. Don't come after us. Just stay at the Burrow since that's where we're coming back to. Please don't worry. We have a plan. I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you about this sooner, but if you stopped us from going, Ron would have been killed by the end of the week and the plan we've come up with couldn't have possibly included any of the Order members. Tell everyone not to worry. We should all be back safely in a few hours or so. _

_But just in case, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for everything. I know I put you under a lot of stress. I know I'm not great to live with but you always treat me so well. Thank you for that. I never told you, but I think you're a great godfather. I've never felt luckier than when I found out I was going to be living with you this summer. I'm sorry I haven't been a better godson, but I promise that this rule breaking will be the last and I'll try a lot harder when I come back. Er, well, I guess that's pretty much it. _

The next part had been written and erased so much that the paper at that spot had been nearly worn through, as if Harry couldn't decide whether to write it or not, but in the end had opted to leave it there.

_I love you._

_-Harry_

Sirius, letter in hand, numbly flooed back to the Burrow. Snape and Dumbledore were in the kitchen, interrogating Ginny for any information she might know and the rest of the Weasleys had all been kicked out into the living room where they waited anxiously.

"Sirius?" George said tentatively. The animagus looked over at him. "If anyone can pull this off, it's Harry. He'll get them all out of there."

"He's not invincible," Sirius said bitterly. "If he dies this time, he can't be brought back." He paused. "At least he made it to his sixteenth birthday; it was yesterday. Unfortunately, I don't think he even realized it."

Dumbledore came back into the room, followed by Snape and Ginny.

"I have made the Order aware of these new developments, but for now, the best thing we can do is wait. No one here is to go out and look for them unless they here otherwise from a member of the Order outside this room."

"Albus," Snape started.

"Severus, please. I am fully aware of all the danger your godson is in. The reality of the matter is that we have no idea where they are headed. They have said they have a plan, both in writing and to Miss Weasley here, and since we do not know what that is, any rash moves on our part could jeopardize their safety and any chance they may have of rescuing Ron. Now, I need to go speak with the Order's search teams and straighten out things with the ministry since I have a feeling there will be much underage magic being performed tonight. I will also be speaking with the Grangers. Arthur, I will be giving the Grangers a Portkey to your home if that's all right with you."

Mr. Weasley nodded. Nobody seemed to notice him stiffen at the word "Portkey." He had neglected to mention his involvement in the ordeal.

Dumbledore nodded and made his exit.

Nobody knew what to say or what to do.

"We need to call everyone we know who can help and get them out there looking," Sirius said determinedly. "I'm going to go contact some people."

He walked off in a daze to use the fireplace to call people, even if he, himself, couldn't go through it.

"Harry's done this before," Mr. Weasley said confidently. "He can do it."

Snape sneered at him. "Harry's been very lucky many times. Bravery only gets you so far. He's on their territory this time without any special powers or wand connections or any hats to pull tricks out of. All I can say is they better have a damn good plan."

......

Draco and Harry landed their brooms softly onto the ground.

"I hate flying," Hermione groaned as she tried to steady herself on the solid ground. "I'm never getting on a broom again."

The three quickly ran over to the guesthouse steps. On the third step up laid Ron's wand, the Portkey.

"How predictable," said Draco. "Psychological tactic to make sure you don't turn back now. It's to show Weasley's vulnerability."

"Maybe you should become a psychiatrist," Harry suggested.

"And listen to other people's problems? Please," Draco snorted dismissively.

"All right, you guys ready?" Harry asked nervously. He pulled out the last item from Draco's bag, his invisibility cloak.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Hermione said with a deep breath.

"Let's just get this over with so we can return to a nice hero's welcome, just before we're grounded for the rest of eternity," Draco said taking the cloak from Harry and draping it over himself and Hermione.

"Okay, wands out," Harry said.

"Check," came two voices, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Okay, on three," Harry said, hovering his hand over the Portkey. "One...two...three..."

He grabbed the Ron's wand and felt the familiar pull at his navel.

A second later, his feet hit solid ground. He heard a significant cough, letting him know that the other two were there under the cloak. He looked up to see a mansion, not as big as the Malfoy's but very significant in size nonetheless. It was surrounded on both sides by very dense trees, and the building itself looked dilapidated and abandoned. Of course, Harry knew otherwise. He had been deposited at the entrance and was sure the Death Eaters knew he was there.

As planned, he took off running. He hid behind a tree and used the cover to look for a possible entrance. He moved quietly through the darkness, eyes studying the mansion. When he found a fairly low window, he crept out from the trees and began slowly making his way toward the house, keeping his eyes open for any movement.

He reached the window and peeked inside. It was completely dark. He pulled out the wand in his pocket and pointed it at the lock.

"Aloho—"

"_Expelliarmus_!" came a shout from behind him and the wand flew from his fingers. Harry whipped around to find two wand points concentrated on him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the boy wonder," one sneered. The other stepped forward, spun him around and slammed him against the wall. Harry winced as his cheek scraped against the rough surface and his glasses dug into the side of his face.

Harry was ripped away from the wall and shoved forward. Each of the two Death Eaters grabbed an arm and kept their wands trained on him with their free hands, marching him forward.

They soon reached a door and muttered the password, "Revenge." Harry barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes.

The door swung open to reveal a short passageway with another door, this time, with two other Death Eaters guarding it. Harry put up a bit of a struggle right after the door was open, feeling something invisible brush passed.

"Hmm, well that was sooner than expected," said one of the new guards. "It's only been three days. I would have guessed he would have waited until the last minute."

"Probably afraid of what we've been doing to his little friend," the other said derisively.

Harry scowled at them. "You better not have hurt him," he growled.

"Or what, you'll bite us?" said one of the ones holding him, running a finger down his cheek. Harry glared at him and stomped on his foot. The Death Eater swore with pain and the other three laughed.

"All right, Potter, why don't we go say hello to your friend," one of the door guards said, unlocking the door. The two door guards led the way, and the two that caught Harry pushed him after them. Harry kicked back discretely, pushing the door open a little more with his foot, praying it was enough.

He was roughly led down to the dungeons.

The Death Eaters tossed Harry into a dark cell. His face smacked against the cement ground, giving him a bloody nose and a crack in one of the lenses in his glasses. He looked up to see a figure lying near a corner beginning to stir.

"Ron?" he asked. The figure looked over, squinting weakly through the darkness. As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, Harry could see a shock of red hair.

He began to crawl over but was grabbed roughly from behind and hauled to his feet before being slammed into a wall.

"Aw, isn't that cute?" the Death Eater said in a sickly sweet voice. "He wants to see his friend."

"Let him go. You want me, not him!" Harry growled. The Death Eater ignored Harry's plea.

The other masked figure walked over to Ron. The redhead moaned, not yet fully conscious or aware of what was going on.

"Leave him alone!" Harry screamed, struggling wildly against the one holding him back.

"I think your friend wants to say hello, Potter," the other Death Eater said gleefully, raising his wand. Ron looked up at the unidentifiable man, frozen in terror.

Harry sank his teeth into the arm that was holding him and kneed the guy in the stomach. He raced toward Ron.

"Crucio!" the cloaked figure yelled.

Harry threw his body over Ron's just as the curse hit. Harry was engulfed in pain but bit back any screams.

The agony soon died and the sounds of surrounding laughter sank in to his hearing. He looked up and glared coldly at the masked figures and carefully climbed off of his friend, making sure he was still between the redhead and the Death Eaters.

"We'll leave you two to bond while we announce your arrival, Potter," one said mockingly. The same one ordered two of the Death Eaters to stand outside the door and guard the cell.

They all filtered out and the door slammed shut, locked with a resounding click.

Harry immediately spun around and knelt by Ron, trying to check for any major injuries. The young Weasley certainly looked worse for the wear. Though he hadn't sustained many injuries, he was rather shaky and his muscles seemed very tense. Harry had been through the Cruciatus Curse enough to know the aftereffects. The redhead had dark circles under his eyes and a dark bruise on his cheek. His lip was split and dried blood still clung to it. It was useless for Harry to do any sort of healing spell, as he had only learned ones for emergencies and was pretty sure that only potions could ease the effects of the Cruciatus. Ron would be fine as long as they got out of there. A lot of rest and food would do the work that his wand could not.

"Harry?" he asked weakly, looking up into Harry's face in disbelief.

"Yeah Ron, it's me," he said comfortingly.

Ron burst out into sobs and, with a tremendous amount of effort and help from Harry, sat up. He wrapped his arms around Harry's neck and wept into his shoulder, clutching Harry's shirt desperately as if the raven-haired boy might disappear at any moment.

"I thought I'd never see anyone again! They're going to kill me. I don't want to die, Harry. I don't want to die," he sobbed hysterically. "I'm so glad you're here. I don't want to be alone here anymore. I just want to go home!"

"Ron, listen to me," he said very quietly. "I'm going to get you out of here okay?"

Ron sniffed. "How?" he asked, pulling away wearily to look into Harry's face.

Harry shook his head and looked pointedly at the door. He couldn't be sure of who was listening. Ron nodded to show he understood.

Harry helped him over to a wall to sit against and the two friends sat down next to each other in the cold cell. Ron leaned bodily against Harry for warmth and comfort. Harry was glad he had thought to wear a sweatshirt. He immediately pulled it over his head and pulled it over Ron's.

"But you'll be cold," Ron protested as Harry pulled Ron's weak arms through the sleeves.

"We won't be here long," Harry promised. "Ron, what have they been doing to you?"

"They—they used the Cruciatus Curse on me. It hurts so bad," he said choking back a sob. "I tried not to scream, but I couldn't help it. And they laughed at me. They said I was weak and I'd be easy to break."

"Those bastards," Harry spat. "You know that's not true. I used to see Voldemort put them under that curse through my visions, and they all screamed the second it hit them. Most people do," Harry said reassuringly. "Trust me, I'm the one that knows you and you'd be as hard as hell to break, whatever they mean by that."

Ron choked out another sob. "I'm so glad you're here," he repeated. "I'm sorry because I shouldn't be since it means you've been brought into this hell, but I am. I just am."

Harry hugged him comfortingly. Ron was obviously frightened out of his mind, not to mention weary from what he had been through physically and mentally. "Don't worry, Ron. We're getting out of here really soon. Have they been feeding you? Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Um, they gave me a slice of bread once, but that was it," Ron said tiredly.

Harry pulled up his pant leg and unstuck his wand, which he had taped to the inside of his pant leg with spellotape. Thankfully, the Death Eaters had fallen for the fake wand. He pulled out the sandwich he had made for Ron from his pocket. He enlarged it from the size of a postage stamp to regular size. He had shrunk it during the long flight to Malfoy Manor so it wouldn't be taken away by the guards. Ron's eyes lit up and took the food eagerly.

"You'd better eat that slowly then. You don't want to throw it up," Harry warned gently. "It's a bit smashed. When we get out of here, though, we'll have your mum cook you a feast of all your favorites. More than you could ever eat."

Ron truly didn't seem to mind the smashed state of the sandwich as he wolfed it down, ending up in a coughing fit.

Harry grabbed Ron's wrist before he could shove the rest of the sandwich in his mouth, despite the coughing.

"Wait 'til you can breathe first," Harry said seriously, patting Ron gently on the back as the coughs subsided. He enlarged a flask of water and helped make sure Ron drank it slowly as well. Only then did he let Ron eat the rest of his sandwich, a little slower this time.

......

Outside the cell, Hermione and Draco had followed the Death Eaters and waited until they emerged again. Both had had to contain their fury as they heard the Cruciatus curse put on Harry, judging by the lack of screaming.

Finally the Death Eaters locked the cell door.

"Alright then, stay here. Guard this cell with your life. If we send someone down, the password will be...the Boy Who Died," one said with a sick chuckle.

"Your originality astounds me," another said sarcastically. "Now just go tell Lucius so we can start torturing the little bastard. I can't wait to give him what he deserves for what he did to our Lord," he said coldly.

Two of the dark figures left, leaving the other two to guard.

Draco nodded at Hermione and the two began silently trailing after the two messengers, wands drawn.

As they got into a deserted corridor, the two poked their wands out from under the Invisibility cloak and simultaneously whispered the stunning spell. The two Death Eaters hit the floor, never even knowing what hit them. Hermione and Draco hurried over to them and dragged them into an empty, nearby cell.

After taking their masks and robes, Hermione put them in full body binds, complete with silencing charms. The two quickly threw the robes on and fixed the masks into place. Hermione put allusion charms on them to make them appear taller.

After waiting a believable amount of time, Draco tucked Harry's cloak under his robes and the two left, heading back down the hall.

As they approached, the two guards straightened.

"The Boy Who Died," Draco said confidently. The two guards nodded and relaxed.

"What did Lucius say?" one asked eagerly.

"We don't know. We were just told to help you two guard the door," Draco said.

"Do you know who we've got in there?" one asked eagerly.

"The Weasley boy?" Draco asked in a bored tone.

'Him...and Harry Potter," the other Death Eater bragged. Draco did not act impressed.

"Oh I'm sure. Probably just a Muggle with dark hair and glasses," Draco challenged. Hermione stood stiffly behind him, not trusting herself to say a word.

"It's true, we caught him ourselves," the first insisted.

"Did you even check if he had a scar?" Draco drawled.

"Yes, it's there!"

"Ha! I'll believe it when I see it," Draco said haughtily.

"Look, I'll even show you. Get out your wands though, just in case. He's a bit of a feisty one," the second man said, taking out the keys.

Draco shrugged as he and Hermione pulled out their wands.

"If you say so," Draco said.

As the two Death Eaters were excitedly focused on finding the right key to open the door, Draco and Hermione walked up behind them and pointed their wands at the back of their necks.

"Hey, what the...?" one started, but the two teenagers dropped them both with stunners.

"Wow. I'm so glad I didn't become a Death Eater. They're just embarrassing," Draco said, plucking the keys from the unconscious man's hand.

"Oh I hope they're all right," Hermione said anxiously as Draco unlocked the door.

......

Ron stiffened as they heard the click of the lock and clutched Harry's arm desperately.

"It's okay, Ron," Harry said quietly, praying that their plan had worked and that his words were truthful.

His blood ran cold when the two figures that stepped inside were definitely taller than his friends.

But then, one ripped off their mask, ending the allusion charm and revealing a tearful Hermione. She raced over to the two as Draco pushed his mask on top of his head and began dragging the bodies of the guards into the cell.

"'Mione?" Ron asked in disbelief as his girlfriend hugged him fiercely.

"Ooh, 'Mione careful. Cruciatus curse," Harry warned before getting up to help Draco, as Hermione was busy fussing over a dumbfounded Ron, planting kisses all over his face. As he walked over, he fixed the crack in his glasses with a spell.

"You all right Harry?" Draco asked, noticing Harry's shaky hands as they dragged the second guard inside.

"Yeah. Very relieved to see you two," he said. Draco nodded at his hands and Harry followed his gaze. "Oh, Cruciatus. Just a quick one. I've had worse," he said dismissively.

Draco raised an eyebrow but Harry ignored him and led the way over to Ron and Hermione.

"We really are getting out of here?" Ron asked, still shocked.

"Of course. Did I promise you a feast or what?" Harry said as he and Draco helped Ron to his feet.

"I'll tell you what, Weasley, we'll even have it at my place. House elves waiting on your every need," Draco said. Hermione was too concerned for Ron to bother about house elf rights.

"Really?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not? But first, we have to get out of here," Draco said, getting down to business.

Ron was too weak to stand on his own, let alone walk, so Harry and Hermione put his arms around their shoulders and helped the weak boy to his feet. Draco slid his mask back down and poked his head out the door before motioning for the rest of them to follow.

They were all silent as they made their ways down the stone hallways, Draco in the lead, checking every corner before gesturing the trio along.

"How far are we going?" Ron whispered weakly.

"We just need to get out of the dungeons to use the Portkey," Harry whispered back.

Up ahead, Draco suddenly froze as he turned a corner before straightening up and trying to look casual.

"What are you doing down here?" a deep voice asked. "I thought we were the ones supposed to be patrolling down here."

"Where's your partner?" another asked. "Don't tell me you lost your partner."

Hermione quickly pulled on her mask and motioned for the boys to hide in the nearest room before slipping out from under Ron's arm. She hurried over to Draco as Harry helped Ron into the room and shut the door behind them. As soon as the door closed, small flames flared up in torches placed all around the walls to reveal a large empty cell. It was not like the cell Ron had been kept in but looked newer somehow. The walls were a blood red and there was a black inscription running around the walls in an ancient language that neither of them could read.

"Harry?" Ron asked shakily. "Do you hear that?"

Harry nodded uneasily. Soft, far-away sounding screams sounded all around them as if from a memory.

Suddenly, they could hear whispered words whirling around them, as if someone was whispering as they ran around them. The voice sounded as if it were coming from the walls themselves and followed the inscription as it glowed an eerie red color.

"Harry," Ron whispered in a panicked tone, clutching Harry's arm in fear as his eyes flickered around the room.

"Harry! Ron!" Hermione's voice came from the small grate in the door. Harry helped Ron over. Figuring the Death Eaters must be gone, Harry tugged at the door with a frown. It wasn't opening.

"Hermione, get us out of here. I have a bad feeling about this," Harry said nervously. He was unable to see Hermione's face. He could only see darkness through the bars.

"Harry," came Draco's panicked voice, "what the hell did you go in here for?"

"Do I need to refresh your memory of the Death Eaters that were coming around the corner?"

"It doesn't matter," Draco cut him off. "Listen to me, Harry, you're in the Nightmare Chamber."

"The what?" Harry asked nervously. He did _not_ like the sound of that.

"Listen to me, Harry. You too, Weasley. You've gone into a psychological torture chamber. Whatever you see in there is NOT REAL. You have to remember that and help each other remember that because it's going to play games with your mind and the doors will only open once if you get through your nightmares. Your fear feeds it but you can't let it make you forget it's not real. It's not real!" Draco said extremely quickly and urgently.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in fear.

"What's not real? Draco, what's going to happen?" Harry asked breathlessly.

"It's going to..."

Draco's voice was cut off.

"Draco?" Harry called anxiously. "Draco? Are you guys okay? Did something happen?"

"Harry," Ron said shakily. "I don't think anything happened to hem. I think it's started."

"What's started?" Harry asked, trying not to sound afraid.

"I don't know," Ron said quietly, fright clear in his voice. "Something bad."

The inscription glowed a dark red before fading out.

.........................................................................................

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Lol, cool, I get a nickname of evilness now? Aw, you shouldn't have! Your reviews make me squeal with joy, did you know that? I agree, Ron and Draco are both funny in their own ways, they just can't quite appreciate that right now. Yeah, it's a bad sign when Harry starts pushing Ron away. You're exactly right. Harry thinks that the less trouble he is and the less people have to deal with him, the longer their relationship might last...a bit screwy, but you can see where his logic would come from in his state of abysmal self-esteem. Now to the version: yeah, Arthur's pretty much on everyone's shit list right now. He's just so desperate to have Ron back and safe, and has practically gone mad with worry, that he's acting a bit irrationally, but in a way, he's right to think that Harry is Ron's only hope. I guess this is just the test that really shows how Arthur feels toward Harry, and he obviously doesn't think of him on the same level as the rest of his kids. But you know, when I was writing this, I really had to wonder: say you're a parent and one of your children is kidnapped, and your other child was the only hope to get the first one back, would you let them go? I really don't know because I'm not a parent, but I think if you thought they had a good enough chance, then you might let them go. Who knows though. Anyways, that was slightly off topic so back to the review. Yeah, the kids at least are not going to take this sitting down. Yup, Harry's taking after Anna in her pyromania. I guess fire's popped up a few times throughout Flawed. Lol, I know, I had so much fun writing it all. I love stories of secret plans and rebellions, which is one reason I loved book 5 with the D.A! Lol, if anyone can get away with scolding a ghoul, it would be Hermione. It just gave me a funny mental picture and I couldn't resist putting it in. I just imagined the poor ghoul, just wanting to terrify people, and having them not even be scared. What a bummer. Lol. Oh poor Ginny gets the bitch-slap. Lol. Poor thing. Oh well, that's what happens when she takes the boy so many rabid fans desire.

**Ckat44: **Ooh thanks for the lovely long review! It made me squee and run around in circles. Well, Dumbledore needs to be harsh and keep everyone under control right now because Arthur obviously wasn't in his right mind and could have done something stupid that would have made the situation work. But you are right that Arthur knows what he's talking about. Ron doesn't really stand a chance if Harry doesn't go rescue him. Sirius really does have Harry's best interests in mind, but as usual, isn't quite sure on what to do. I'm glad you found Lucius's letter chilling. HAHAHA, I was so confused when I first read your line, "I love you," Severus said silkily as he massaged Katie's neck.I thought you meant Katie Bell for a few minutes and was so beyond confused. Then I realized you were just talking about your own obsession with our resident Potions master. Lol. I'm glad you like Ginny's involvement and liked her...er...opportunity-seeking with Harry, lol. Thanks for the review! It was awesome.

**Lady Riddle: **lol, love you too. /smiles innocently/ Er, well, you better start liking cliffies pretty quickly because there's a bunch coming up. Wow, I'm glad you like Recnac so much. Don't worry, everyone has an impossibly hard time spelling Transfaerso. I've seen possibly every variation of the word. I'm so happy you think I'm improving in my style and tone and such!! I'm sorry I didn't get this out by the date you requested! I'm moving into my college in a few weeks too! I hope you have fun!

**Dana (TheSerpentAndTheLion): **Yeah, Harry's used to jumping into hero mode when bad things happen and now the stakes are even higher, so Harry's even more determined than normal. I'm glad you like the way things are going between Harry and Ginny. I'm not one for a lot of romantic description, but I do enjoy the little subplot. In the uncut version, a lot of people think Ron was OOC, which makes me glad I took it out. I, along with a few others, disagree, but I can see what everyone means. Nobody wants to see Ron get angry and jump to conclusions after they've gotten so close through Recnac and this fic. I'm glad that you like the scene with Ron and Draco discussing Harry, though.

**Myr Halcyon **(I'm glad you can see the two sides of Arthur here. You never quite know what Dumbledore knows or doesn't know.), **musiclover, M0rbidity, Babylon for Life **(Say thank you to your friend for me for recommending it! I'm so glad you liked it! Lol, yeah, skipping AP studying time is never a good idea. I'm so happy you like Draco and Sev, because I love em both too. I hope you continue to like it!), **OreoCookies **(lol, well I'm glad the confusion's been cleared up and I'm so glad you like it!), **guy incognito **(Well, Arthur's being completely irrational, because he's crazy with worry about his son. I think we'd all like to think of Arthur and Harry as closer than they actually are. They don't interact much in the actual books. Anyways, he has majorly bad judgment here, but he's desperate, and in a way, he's right. Harry really was the only chance of getting Ron back.), **angelsleeping **(I'm glad you like my fic! To get to my yahoo group, just go to my author's page and click on the link and sign up. You'll need a yahoo email account, but they're absolutely free and easy, and you can even put in a fake name if you want to. Hope you enjoy!), **Marci018 **(well, there will be quite a few cliffies coming along in the next several chapters, so learn to love 'em! Lol. Do not fear, more Harry angst coming your way!), **sami1010220 **(I update once a week. Hope you enjoy!), **venus4280** (I'm the exact same way! I don't want other characters to die or get too hurt in canon, because I want to be able to fuss over Harry more! Lol, I know exactly what you mean.), ** Shadow Wolf2418 **(lol, fun saying! Well, Harry's getting used to traumatic experiences in life and he's gotten into the habit of jumping into hero mode, you know? That's what he did in canon when Sirius was captured. He's very used to jumping into his plan of action and I think of it almost as his way of dealing with bad things. Some people worry, Harry immediately determines how he can fix it.), **shadowsfriend** (Thanks! I'm so glad you like this and the deleted scenes. I'm so glad you're not disappointed in the sequel and actually like it better. Good to know I'm not wasting my time with it, you know? I hope this gets out by the time you needed it! I think I'm posting a bit earlier than last week, but it's hard to remember!), **MissPanther **(lol, well, I got it out Saturday, is that good? Of course, now I've left you with another cliffie to worry about, sorry! Hope your exam goes well!!), **Bu **(I don't mind you saying so at all! I'm glad you like it more. Means I'm improving, I think, lol.), **m, fantagal **(lol, I'll see what I can do –grins evilly-), **leontine-456, Vikki, mickeymoose, lost angel92, Hp-Azn, Ophite68, EriEka127 **(Right now, Dumbledore's trying to find Ron and doesn't have much time for checking the wards, but it doesn't really matter now because they already told him about it and he has no idea where Harry's gone to.), **Siri Kat, XxGoddessOfImaginaryLightxX **(yeah, as soon as Dumbledore let out that there was a loophole, Harry was certain to go for it. Lol, I'm glad you like the ghoul. I actually had to do a lot of research to figure out what a ghoul actually was. But he appreciates the attempt to give him a friend...even though he probably enjoys his misery), **Shawn Pickett** (Lol, true, but at least Harry _has_ a plan rather than jumping into it blindly as usual.), **angel74 **(Yeah, it randomly switches to action/adventure, but don't worry, there's still much angst and Harry-torture ahead. Lol, you're not sick, you just know me well enough to know it could never be that easy.), **Istalksiriusonweekends **(don't worry, you'll find out what was happening with Harry's health soon)**, Talons, parts-of-a-fish-girl, Lorie1101 **(lol, shy quiet little Ginny decided Harry was just too hot to let him go off on a dangerous rescue mission without a little pre-game smooching. Lol. Hope the climax keeps you on your toes, lol.), **ThreeToedSloth **(Thanks! I'm so glad you liked it! Yes, the Weasleys do love Harry, and some of them think of him as family, but Arthur in particular isn't as close to Harry as we'd like to believe and his own children will always come first. Of course, the same would be true with Sirius. Harry will always come first.), **azntgr01, MissLilyStar **(hahaha! Your review gave me a mental image of Harry in a boxing ring corner, having people pump him up, with a Death Eater getting ready on the other side, drinking a huge bottle of water. Lol. Okay, yes, I'm weird.), **girlwhoshowspigs **(I'm glad you liked the kiss! You'll just have to wait and see what becomes of our young Harry), **Whispyraven **(it's okay, don't worry. you have the right to constructive criticism, of course, it just didn't seem like you were enjoying it and said you'd only give it a 4.5, so I just wasn't sure why you were still reading it if there were other fics out there you might be enjoying a whole lot mroe. You're completely allowed to criticize. We'll just have to see if your prediction comes true with what happens.)**, kneh13, hpfanchrissy1502, Jamie, lyss33, Stahchild **(lol, I used to watch Scooby Doo all the time!), **corrinetkn24, Lia Tween **(the wards aren't down, they merely let Harry and co through. Mmmmm I'm very enticed by the cookie, though, so here's your chapter!!), **Jenn the Freak **(good luck in school! I start college later September. I'm moving in on the 18th. Talk about scary. But I'm actually really excited and can't wait!), **Dea Puella, heather **(thanks for dropping a review! Lol, yes, Draco _used_ to have a crush on Hermione, but he doesn't anymore, though it would have made and interesting subplot. Hahaha, yeah, let's let Harry hit second base with Ginny to get some stress off his mind! LOL), **Bluerain22, wynjara, MsHobgoblin **(thanks!), **silent planet, musicstarlover, Lady Pallas **(Well, by now you can see what's happened to Ron, whether everyone survives the rescue is still left to be seen, and actually, there a quite a few cliffhangers coming up. Oops? Lol), **GhostMagic19, Savoy Truffle **(Um, there will be a bit more Remus, but not a lot, really. I love him to death, but there wasn't a lot of room for him in this fic, to tell you the truth.), **Nation El-Diablo **(yeah, the version on the yahoo group is the same fic, just longer with some deleted scenes. There are also deleted scenes that didn't make it into either version. There's only 3 or 4 right now, but there will eventually be more, including the alternate ending for Recnac), **kingcobra1988, ginnygal189 **(yeah, amazingly Harry actually thought something out for once!! Maybe he's been hanging around sly Slytherins for too long lol), **Lupin123 **(lol, me? Pure evil? Muahahaha! It's the Slytherin within. I guess Snape and Draco have let their Slytherin side rub off on Harry to the point where he's actually thinking things through. Them heading to Snape Manor was a complete mess up on my part. I changed it to Malfoy Manor immediately after reading your review, so thanks for giving me the head's up!), **gina87, Charlie Quill, ChildOfDarkness **(hahaha, annoying little sister, eh? I have much Harry angst coming up just for you)


	22. Worst Nightmares

**Author's Note: **Hey all! Not much to say for once. I'm really really hungry so I'm going to post this in a hurry. I hope you enjoy!

...........................................................................................

Harry blinked and started. The cell had been replaced with the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts. It appeared to be nighttime.

"Doesn't seem so bad so far," Harry said nervously. Ron didn't look so sure.

The door opened and Dumbledore came through and walked sadly up to Ron.

"Mr. Weasley, do you know why you're here?" he asked sadly.

Ron closed his eyes. "It's not real," he whispered firmly.

"It's not real," Harry said with a confirming nod.

"Mr. Weasley, you've had a very hard few months and your family and friends have expressed their concern for you. We want to help you."

"Help me with what?" Ron asked shakily.

"Ron, it's not real!" Harry reminded him. Ron looked over at him and nodded, looking as though he'd temporarily forgotten.

"Who are you looking at, Mr. Weasley...Ron?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

Ron looked back at him warily. "Harry. He's right here."

Dumbledore sighed sadly. "Ron, Harry died at the end of last term. I know you've been suffering these delusions that he's still alive and speaking to you, but they're not real. The reality of the situation is that Harry's gone. He's dead. You have to come to terms with that."

Harry was stunned. This was Ron's worst nightmare? That he, Harry, was dead?

Ron looked at Dumbledore in horror and shook his head. "No. No, this is not real. It's not and I can see Harry, he's right here." Ron turned to him anxiously. "Harry, tell him it's not true."

"Ron, it's not real. Believe me, I'm alive. I never completely died. Remember where we really are. It's a torture chamber and this is just a nightmare," Harry said firmly.

"Right, yeah. This is just a nightmare. It's not real," Ron said as if trying to convince myself.

Dumbledore looked at him sadly. "Ron, come here," he said, walking over to one of the hospital beds that had the curtains drawn around them.

Ron followed him as if in a trance. It took him a lot of effort to walk over there, and he moved very slowly, but Ron didn't even seem to notice his shaky legs.

Dumbledore pulled back the curtains and on the bed lay Harry's dead body, looking just the way it had the day he had, for lack of a better description of it, _died_. Ron choked out a sob and looked desperately back at Harry.

"It's not real," Harry shouted at his friend desperately. Why wasn't Ron remembering that?

"Harry," Ron said breathlessly, "you're fading. You look like a ghost."

Dumbledore motioned for Ron to come forward to the fake Harry's side and the redhead weakly stepped up to him.

"Feel his hand," Dumbledore instructed.

Ron reluctantly felt the fake Harry's hand and burst into tears, sitting down on the floor next to him as his tired legs could no longer support his bodyweight. "Oh gods, oh gods, it's true," he said, taking the dead Harry's hand in his. "It can't be true. Please."

The real Harry ran over to Ron and made to grasp his shoulder, but his hand passed through Ron as if he were a ghost. Ron, unfortunately, saw this and began rocking back and forth in despair.

"No. Gods no. Please no. No. It can't be," he chanted desperately.

"Ron!" Harry shouted firmly, causing his best friend to look up at him, his expression was one of pure misery. "Ron, listen to me. This isn't real, but it's seeming more and more real because you're believing it, okay?"

"Ron," Dumbledore said sharply, "don't listen to him. He's just a dream and you must start to face..."

"Ron!" Harry shouted to get back the redhead's attention. "Don't listen to him. He's not real. He's even slipping; he's not supposed to see or hear me right?" Harry knelt by his friend.

"Harry, I don't want you to be dead," Ron whimpered through his tears.

Harry nodded. "Then believe me and listen to me, okay?" he coaxed. "Let go of his hand. That's not me."

Ron nodded and put down the hand of the fake Harry.

"Ron, don't listen to that apparition," Dumbledore said warningly, his eyes flashing dangerously as the real Dumbledore's would never.

"Don't listen to him, Ron," Harry said. "You know the real Dumbledore would never talk like that."

Ron nodded. "You're becoming more solid-looking again," he said in relief.

Harry cautiously touched Ron's arm. It was solid again.

He grinned in relief and stood, helping Ron to his feet.

"_Mister_ Weasley," Dumbledore shouted angrily, but Ron ignored him.

"It's not real," he said with conviction.

And suddenly, they were back in the chamber.

"Oops," Ron said sheepishly, "I guess I let it suck me in."

"Your nightmare is me dying?" Harry asked, still in disbelief.

Ron looked at him gravely. "You don't know what your death did to me, Harry," Ron said, looking away sadly.

"Ron...I...thank you," he said sincerely.

The words around them glowed a deep red again and they were surrounded by faint screams and louder whispers that swirled around them before the glow and the noises extinguished.

Ron looked at Harry sympathetically. "Time for yours I guess. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon," he said as the room began to dissolve around them.

When Harry looked around he realized he was in his room at the Lighthouse, which came as a bit of a surprise. He had expected to be at the Dursleys. But then again, a lot of his more recent dreams involved Uncle Vernon coming to the Lighthouse.

Suddenly, Sirius burst through the door looking furious. Harry recognized the dream. He knew it as his worst and he'd had it repeatedly, but for some reason, as he rapidly tried to remember it, the details were slipping away from his memory and he could remember what was going to happen. His mind began to feel strangely numb and he felt very wrapped up in the scene, as if he were actually there.

"It's not real," Harry reminded himself, but he could now tell why Ron had started losing grip of reality. There seemed to be something about the spell that warped your sense of what was real and what was not.

"Do you know who I just got finished talking to?" Sirius sneered.

"Wh-who?" Harry found himself asking, caught up in the moment.

"Harry! It's not real," Ron said from beside him. Harry quickly looked over at his friend and nodded.

"Arthur Weasley. And do you want to know what he said?" Sirius asked dangerously.

"It's not real. It's not real," Harry chanted to himself.

"You wish this wasn't real. He said that you're no longer allowed over there. He said you've been nothing but an annoyance. Ron finally asked his parents to keep you away so he didn't have to tell you himself that he doesn't like you. Did you really think they wanted you over there all the time, leeching off their family? Well, think again," Sirius ranted. "You just put everyone in danger and just face it Harry, everyone just puts up with you. I mean, Merlin, I called the Dursleys and offered to pay them to take you back and they still refused so now _I _have to be the one stuck with you."

"Harry," Ron said quietly, looking at Harry sympathetically, not knowing what to say.

Harry felt his face grow hot with embarrassment and avoided Ron's eyes.

"Your uncle warned me this would happen. I always thought you were going to be like James, but obviously I was wrong," he spat. "You're destroying my life! You're pathetic. You're worthless. You only ruin lives. As your uncle put it, how could anybody love a piece of trash like you? They were right, you're just a freak, I finally see that," he said viciously, echoing Uncle Vernon's words from the kitchen at the Stensons.

Sirius advanced on Harry, who involuntarily stepped back. He quickly told himself that Sirius couldn't hurt him because he wasn't real.

"_But Ron could feel people in his nightmare_," he remembered.

He tried to calm himself, but the knowledge that the more afraid he got, the more Sirius would be able to actually touch him did nothing but frighten him more. He started to look for Ron, but was interrupted when Sirius backhanded him and Harry went sprawling to the floor. He scrambled back up as his godfather came closer.

"Harry! Harry!" he heard Ron call from what sounded like far away. Harry looked up and Ron was partially see-through, like a ghost. "It's not real!"

But the pain in the side of his face felt very real as he backed away from Sirius whose expression looked much like the one his uncle often wore when Harry was really in trouble.

Sirius picked up a picture frame from Harry's nightstand and hurled it at Harry's head. He ducked just in time and the frame crashed into the wall behind him.

"Sirius, don't. Please, I'm sorry," Harry pleaded as his godfather strode toward him angrily.

Harry dodged by him and ran to the door, turning the handle and pulled at the door desperately, but it wouldn't budge. He suddenly felt himself being yanked away from the door by his hair. Sirius shoved him to the floor and kicked him solidly in the stomach. The animagus then hauled him up by the front of his shirt.

Harry looked behind him, confused to see the Dursley's glass table there, the one his uncle had thrown him through. He looked in horror at Sirius realizing what he was going to do.

"No, Sirius. Please," he begged in a panic as Sirius pushed him back.

"Harry! There's no table there!"

Harry glanced in surprise over at Ron, suddenly remembering the redhead being there.

That moment of distraction was all he need and instead of hitting the table, he landed flat on his back, the glass table still in one piece above him. He had gone right through it.

But then, through the glass, he could see Sirius holding out Harry's cauldron over the glass, a cold expression on his face.

Harry quickly turned over and threw his arms over the back of his head as Sirius dropped the cauldron, shattering the glass. The heavy cauldron struck Harry in the side and shards of glass sprayed over him. He felt several cuts, but the damage was nowhere near as bad as it would have been if he'd been thrown through the table and fallen onto the broken glass.

After chancing a glance and seeing Sirius begin to move, he scrambled out from under the table, getting several slices on his hands and knees.

He had to beat this. "_It's not real_," he told himself. "_It's not..._"

Sirius pressed him up against the wall, hands around his neck. Harry couldn't breathe. He clawed at the hands cutting off his oxygen supply but couldn't. He could distantly hear someone calling his name.

Suddenly, the ghost-like Ron was in front of him, looking absolutely terrified. Harry looked in amazement as Sirius's arms went right through him.

"Ron," he choked out before Sirius tightened his grip painfully.

"Harry, damnit listen to me now! Harry look at me!" Ron screamed. Harry complied weakly as his head began to swim. "Harry, I'm your best friend and you've got to trust me. Sirius can't hurt you if you don't let him. Sirius loves you; he would never do this. This is a very bad nightmare. It's not real."

Harry's vision began to darken around the edges

"Harry, for Merlin's sake if this was real and I was standing here, I would not let this happen to you! Do you understand that? Harry please! This can't be real because I would never stand aside and let it just happen to you," Ron screamed desperately. "It's not real! You have to believe me!"

"_It's not real,_" Harry told himself firmly, forcing himself to remember where he was as he fought unconsciousness.

Suddenly, the hands were gone and Harry felt his legs give out. The room turned back into a cell. Ron grabbed him before he could hit the ground and shakily lowered him to a sitting position on the ground before Ron's own weak legs could give out. He held Harry upright as the raven-haired boy gasped for air. After his breathing got back to normal, Harry let out a small sob before pushing back any tears. Ron held him tight as Harry clutched the back of his shirt shakily.

"Harry, was that what it was like at the Dursleys?" Ron asked quietly.

Harry nodded numbly.

The door clicked loudly and Harry pulled away from Ron, wiping his bloody hands on his trousers. There was no trace of glass on him, but his mind had let the nightmare take its physical effect. He knew he'd soon have vivid bruises on his face and neck.

Hermione and Draco yanked open the door.

"I hate to be insensitive or anything, but we really need to get out of here," Draco said anxiously.

Harry nodded and got control of his emotions, helping Ron to his feet and slinging the redhead's arm over his shoulder once again. When they got to the door, Hermione supported Ron on his other side, frowning as she took in Harry's appearance, and the clear tear tracks on Ron's grimy face.

"Are you guys alright?" she asked gently as they followed Draco.

"I just want to get out of here," Ron said in a weary tone. "Then, we'll all have a talk," he said, giving Harry a significant look.

"Now remember you're in the dungeons and it's full of cells and torture chambers, so don't go in any of them, okay?" Draco said exasperatedly. "Just so you know, the ones with the black doors are cells, so if you need to hide, choose one of those, not one of the red door ones."

"Thanks for telling us that _now_," Ron grumbled as the trio followed Draco's lead.

"Draco," Hermione hissed to get the blonde's attention without attracting any unwanted attention as they walked through the eerie halls of the dungeon, "how much longer until we can use the Portkey."

Draco pointed to a staircase up ahead.

"Once we're up there and down the hall, we can use it," he said quietly. The blonde went ahead to make sure the coast was clear before motioning them forward.

The three took only a few steps when suddenly, incredible pain shot through Harry's head. He fell to his knees, letting go of Ron's wrist to clutch his forehead. This time the pain felt much sharper, much more concentrated and direct. This time, it was clear that the pain he was feeling was originating from his scar.

Without Harry's support, Ron fell as well, dragging Hermione down with them. To their horror, footsteps could be heard in the distance, moving rapidly toward them.

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione whispered frantically, trying to shake him out of it.

Harry clenched his teeth and got to his feet. Draco was at his side instantly, shouting that they had to go now. He no longer bothered with hushed tones as it was obvious that they had been discovered.

Hermione attempted to tug Ron to his feet, looking panicked. Yet another wave of pain brought Harry down to his hands and knees, crying out in agony.

"Go! Just go!" he yelled at his friends desperately. He felt something warm drip down from his nose and several drops of blood splashed to the floor. His head swam dangerously and his hearing kept coming and going. Draco desperately tried to pull him to his feet, but it was hopeless.

"Oh no. It was a trap," Ron gasped shakily, falling back to his knees. "It was something with his scar all along!"

"Draco, please!" Harry gasped in a hiss of pain. "Get them out of here! Get yourself out of here! Your dad'll kill you!"

Draco looked torn, looking searchingly into Harry's eyes as if looking for an indication of what he should do. With an apologetic look, he reluctantly nodded. He dropped Harry's arm and raced over to Ron and Hermione as the Death Eaters rounded the corner.

"We've got to go!" he yelled at them, hauling Ron to his feet.

"What?!" Hermione shrieked. "We can't leave Harry!"

"What are you doing? Let me go! We have to help him!" Ron screamed.

"Granger! Please, they're coming. If we stay here right now, we're all going to die. They'll kill you two instantly. Harry's going to be taken somewhere else first. They're not going to kill him right away. Do you understand? Help me get Weasley out of here!" he yelled. "If we stay here, none of us will stand a chance. Weasley will be the first they'll kill and he won't stand a chance without a wand or even being able to stand. Harry stands a chance."

Hermione shook her head tearfully before grabbing Ron's other arm and flinging it around her shoulders as the Death Eaters got closer.

"Hermione, what are you doing? We have to help him!" Ron shouted in disbelief.

"Ron, they'll kill you. You're defenseless. We have to get you out of here," Hermione said through her tears. She and Draco began dragging the screaming redhead up the stairs.

"No! We can't leave him!!" Ron shouted feverishly, watching as his best friend was hit by a bunch of Cruciatus curses in conjunction to whatever the first pain was.

Harry screamed in agony and writhed around on the floor, clawing at his scar, but Draco forcibly hauled Ron up the stairs. Hermione was bawling next to Ron, but continued to pull him up the stairs, forcing herself not to look back.

"HARRY!! NO!! LEAVE HIM ALONE!!" Ron screamed hysterically, watching the sight below. The Death Eaters had surrounded Harry, obstructing Ron's view. Judging by the absence of further screams, he figured that they had stopped cursing Harry, but that he was in for a much worse fate.

The green-eyed boy was dragged from the crowd by two Death Eaters as many others followed, wands trained on him. His face contorted in pain as he pressed a hand to his scar. A few of the Death Eaters who weren't given the important task of getting Harry to their new leader for punishment, started after the three who were nearing the top of the stairs.

Draco and Hermione shot several curses over their shoulders, hitting a few and causing the others to find cover. Draco kicked open the door at the top of the stairs and the three ran through it, closing and locking it with several spells.

Draco slowly pushed Ron's weight off him and onto Hermione. He began rapidly searching his pockets.

"Here's the Portkey," he said, thrusting the key into Hermione's hand. "Get Ron to the end of this hall and turn right onto the carpeted area. As soon as you're on the carpet, activate the Portkey. And don't you dare even think about doing otherwise, because once I get Harry, I want to get us out of here immediately and not have to come looking for you two, got it?"

Ron opened his mouth to say something but Draco cut him off.

"No, you can't come. Weasley, you can't help him in this state and Granger, you need to get him out of here. If you want there to even be a chance of Harry getting out of here alive, you two will do as I said," Draco said firmly. "Don't argue with me, it'll only waste time and I need to catch up to them."

The two just nodded reluctantly.

Draco took off his amulet and placed the large chain around their necks as the Death Eaters began pounding loudly on the door.

"That'll only work once," Draco warned. "So watch it."

"Thank you, Draco. Good luck," Hermione said tearfully.

"Bring him back," Ron ordered shakily, still stunned at what was happening.

Draco nodded before covering himself with Harry's invisibility cloak. Ron and Hermione began hobbling down the hall.

Moments after Draco disappeared, the door burst open behind the two and several Death Eaters stormed through.

Hermione threw curses over her shoulder, skillfully taking down several of the cloaked figures. At first, several were cursed with spells Hermione knew she hadn't cast and suspected that Draco had helped them out a bit before slipping back through the open door.

"Can't duel as well when it's not a hundred on one, can you?" Hermione spat back at them as she and Ron slowly made their way down the hall.

They were almost at the carpet when one of the Death Eaters jumped up and furiously shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"

A flash of green light sped toward them before either could even scream, but suddenly, a streak of white light appeared, coming from the amulet. It collided with the Killing Curse a foot away from the two, causing a mini-firework.

Ron and Hermione stood frozen in shock momentarily, not daring to believe that they were still alive. They looked down at the amulet and saw that the glow that now appeared in the emerald eyes was slowly fading as the two tiny gems turned black. The flash of light caused from the collision of magic faded away, revealing a surprised Death Eater at the end of the hall. The two teenagers and the masked figures stared at each other momentarily before they each snapped out of it.

The Death Eater raised his wand as Hermione and Ron dived sideways onto the rug. Hermione wrapped her arms around Ron, gripping the key in her hand. She shouted "the Burrow!" which activated the Portkey.

The two disappeared just as the Death Eater rounded the corner.

They landed with a thump on the floor of the Burrow's living room.

Everyone had been sitting in silence around the living room on various couches and chairs.

It only took a second to register what was going on before everyone jumped up and started shouting for others to come.

"Oh Ron! My baby!" Mrs. Weasley cried, immediately kneeling by her son and sweeping him up into a desperate embrace. Mr. Weasley was there next, hugging both of them and sobbing. The twins and Ginny latched onto the group hug, all crying in relief to have their brother back alive. Ron lost it once again, and in the comfort of his family surrounding him, broke down into tears.

Hermione's parents were there as well and immediately descended on her, hugging her tightly as they wept, telling her never to do something like this to them again.

Sirius and Snape raced into the room from the kitchen, scanning it desperately. They darted forward as the families broke up their hugs to assess the physical condition of the two teenagers.

"Where are Harry and Draco?!" Snape shouted frantically.

The Weasleys looked around, noticing for the first time that only two had returned.

Ron and Hermione hung their heads slightly.

"Death Eaters got to Harry. They took him. Draco went after him," Ron said numbly, feeling so drained. It was as if he was trapped in some kind of horror story that wouldn't end. The guilt he was feeling was overwhelming.

"No," Ginny gasped in terror. Fred and George froze with identical looks of horror.

Snape picked up a nearby vase and threw it against the wall in a bout of fury.

"NO!" Sirius cried, sinking to the floor and putting his face in his hands. "No, not again. I just got him back!"

The rest of the room didn't know what to say to the two, and were rather distraught themselves.

Sirius looked up at Hermione with an odd look on his face. "How did you get that Portkey?" he asked. Everybody looked at him, now wondering that exact same thing. "Harry didn't know how to make one and I'm sure Draco didn't either," he said coldly.

Hermione looked away. "I, um...I don't know," she lied, but Sirius knew anyway. He took one look at Mr. Weasley's guilty face and knew.

"You _bastard_!" he growled before lunging at Ron's father. Before he could reach him, Snape tackled him from behind. Sirius struggled to get out of Snape's grasp, to get to Mr. Weasley. "You bastard! You knew! You helped send him on a suicide mission! He's barely sixteen! He never got a birthday party!" he cried, looking crazed.

"Black! Stop this you idiot!" Snape yelled. "We'll deal with this later after we figure out exactly what's going on!"

Sirius finally calmed down, getting to his feet rigidly, glaring with nothing short of loathing at Mr. Weasley. Snape began walking him back into the kitchen, but Sirius spun around coldly, not making another attack on the eldest Weasley, but just to get in his last bit.

"Harry thought of you as a father and you sent him to the slaughter like he was nothing. And now he's going to die thinking he was nothing more than a tool we use when we're in trouble..."

"THAT'S ENOUGH, BLACK," Snape snapped, dragging Sirius into the kitchen and giving him firm orders to stay there.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley checked over their son, who was obviously not in great shape. Mr. Weasley scooped Ron up into his arms. Ron put his arms around his dad's neck and buried his tired, dirty, and tear-stained face into his shoulder.

Snape came back into the room, with a deadened expression.

"I'm taking Ron to St. Mungo's," Mr. Weasley announced. The Weasley children stood solemnly to follow as Mrs. Weasley stood at her husband's side, brushing back Ron's hair with her fingers and murmuring words of comfort to him.

"Wait! I need to know exactly what happened! What the boys planned for, what they have," Snape said frantically, looking to Hermione.

"I-I have to go with Ron," she said apologetically.

Ginny stepped forward. "I'm going to go with them to the hospital, but once we make sure Ron's okay, Hermione will tell me everything and I'll come back to tell you," she said shakily.

Snape nodded as the Weasleys and the Grangers all flooed to St. Mungo's.

......

The pain in Harry's head finally ceased as he was pushed to the hard floor. The room continued to spin and the ringing remained in his head for a few minutes.

Finally, he was able to look up and take in his surroundings. He was in a large, room without anything special about it. It looked as if it might have once been a large dining hall, but was now bare and cold. The torches lining the four walls made everything look even more eerie. Each torch had two crossed swords hanging on the wall underneath them, promising that this room would bring pain. He remembered Draco telling him how his father loved swords, which was why he'd started Draco in fencing in the first place, hoping to one day teach him how to do it with real swords. The decoration of the room proved who was in charge.

Death Eaters stood behind him and on either side. Directly in front of him sat Lucius Malfoy in a large, ornate chair on a raised strip of the room, looking very much as if he were sitting on a throne.

A Death Eater was handing him a wand. Harry frantically dug his hands into his pockets, but to his horror, realized that the wand Lucius Malfoy was now twirling around in his fingers was indeed Harry's. Now it didn't matter that there were much less Death Eaters than at Voldemort's final duel with Harry. At that moment, he would have given anything for his wandless magic back. He slowly got to his feet.

"I'm not taking my chances with you, Potter," Lucius drawled, twirling the wand around. "I'll be keeping this."

He shoved the wand into the pocket of his robes and stood up, walking forward toward Harry, who tried to force the nervousness of his face, and stood his ground.

"You want to see a fun little trick, Potter?" he asked evilly.

He took out his wand and touched it to his Dark Mark and looked at Harry, waiting for something.

Suddenly, Harry's scar erupted in pain once more. He fell to his knees clutching his forehead and trying with all his might not to scream.

With a sadistic laugh, Lucius removed his wand and the pain immediately ceased.

"How interesting. I was told you didn't feel it in your scar when we did it. I guess it's the close proximity," he said, clearly entertained.

Lucius walked confidently up to Harry, who quickly scrambled to his feet and backed up a few steps.

"Potter, Potter. It's not time to leave. Take a seat," Lucius said with a malicious smirk. He flicked his wand and Harry's ankles sprung together momentarily and he fell back onto his bum. The Death Eaters all laughed at him.

"You're pathetic, you know!" Harry growled at Lucius with more confidence than he actually possessed. "You think you're going to be the next Dark Lord, but you won't even give me my wand and try to beat me in a duel. You can play your little games with me, but even if you kill me, someone else will kill you, leaving the next in line to try and take power, until you're all defeated down to the very last sniveling little rat!"

Lucius quickly walked up to him, his expression full of fury. He grabbed Harry's hair and yanked it back so Harry was looking up at him.

"I will not be defeated, Potter. But I assure you that you will. You will pay for what you did to our old master and you will not get in my way," he sneered before throwing Harry's head away. "You will also pay," he said in a louder voice, "for corrupting my son. He was on his way to being great before _you_ messed around with his head."

"Yeah, he was on his way to following in your footsteps and becoming a sniveling little servant. Luckily, he's made out of stronger stuff than any of you cowards," Harry sneered.

"Draco is a little traitor and has been a waste of my time for fifteen years," Lucius spat.

"_Draco_ is better than you'll ever be. You have people who fear you, but Draco has people who respect him, and that's something you'll never be able to have," Harry said angrily.

"_Crucio!_" Lucius yelled furiously.

Pain engulfed Harry's body once again and he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out as he curled into a ball on the floor.

When the pain ended, Harry shakily put his hands on the floor and started to push himself up with much effort. Yet all of a sudden, he felt a cloak being thrown over him and heard the sounds of several gasps. He looked up to see Draco's face as the blonde hauled Harry to his feet. They were both under the invisibility cloak. Draco quickly pulled Harry away from the spot where he had just lain.

"Did he Disapparate?" one Death Eater asked.

"No, you idiot. You can't Apparate in or out of this part of the manor," Lucius snapped, looking around anxiously. "Cover the doors."

Under the cloak, the two boys ran toward the nearest door, but jerked to a halt as two Death Eaters beat them to it. The others began to sweep the room, arms feeling out in front of them.

Draco thought quickly and began stunning Death Eaters at each door, effectively confusing them. He used a charm Hermione had taught him to make one of the doors on the opposite side of the room burst open, causing most of the cloaked figures to run that way, including the two guarding the door nearest to the two.

A look of comprehension dawned over Lucius's face.

"Accio invisibility cloak!" he bellowed. The two boys desperately tried to hold onto the material around them but the cloak was ripped away. Harry started to dart forward after it, not wanting to lose his father's cloak, but Draco yanked him back, giving him a look that clearly asked if he was insane.

Lucius's gaze connected with Draco's and white-hot fury melted over his face. Draco froze under the loathing gaze of his father. Harry grabbed Draco's wrist and pulled him out the door as spells barely missed them. One hit Draco's arm, slicing it sharply, before they slammed the door and began racing down the halls.

"Where are we?" Harry asked frantically.

Draco looked around, biting his bottom lip. "Um, um, I think it's this way," he said, sounding very unsure of himself. As they heard steps coming from down the passage behind them, Harry had no choice but to blindly follow Draco.

The two turned a corner and nearly collided with someone. Draco jutted his wand toward the figure who was standing in the unlit hallway and began to shout a curse.

"Whoa, whoa," said the man, putting his hands up passively. "Harry? Oh thank Merlin," the man said in relief. He stepped into the light and Harry let out the breath he had been holding.

"Hr. Callahan?" he asked incredulously. "What? How..."

The three froze as they heard footsteps in the distance coming toward them.

"In here boys," the healer said, pulling the two into a small, dark room.

The three held their breaths and waited. Draco and Harry were shaking, one with fright, the other with the after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse.

Thankfully, the footsteps ran passed the room.

"All right," Harry whispered after a long enough period of silence had passed, "we need to get out of here."

"Wait a sec there, Harry," Hr. Callahan said, eyeing his shaking body disapprovingly, pulling out a small vial.

"Now?!" Harry asked incredulously.

"It'll do us no good if you collapse on the way out of here," he explained. "I'm a healer, Harry. Humor me, okay?"

Harry sighed and quickly downed the potion.

"Happy?" he asked, slightly annoyed.

"Very," Hr. Callahan said with a pleased grin.

"How did you find us?" Harry asked.

"Your godfather and Professor Snape have gotten everyone they know out searching," Hr. Callahan said quickly, walking toward the door.

"Yeah, but how did you think to come here?" Draco asked in amazement. "I mean it's in the middle of nowhere, isn't it?"

"I'll explain later. We need to go. I'll lead you out the way I came in," he said quietly, listening at the door to make sure the coast was really clear. "All right boys, it's now or never. Stay close," he said before leading them out into the dark hall.

The three walked silently down the halls, listening for any sound, but there was none. In fact, it made Harry uneasy, feeling like he should be hearing _something _of the Death Eaters' search for them.

Suddenly, Hr. Callahan froze. "Did you hear that?" he whispered.

"Hear what? I didn't hear anything," Draco said nervously, squinting into the darkness.

"Me neither," Harry agreed.

"Go through there," Hr. Callahan whispered, pointing to a large door to the side of them as he held the tip of his wand out to the dark hall. "Now," he hissed urgently.

Thinking the healer may have seen something, Draco and Harry jumped into action, wrenching open the doors and beginning to dart through them until they froze in horror.

It was the large room that Harry had originally been taken to. All the Death Eaters were back, wands steadied on the boys. They quickly disarmed the two.

Harry and Draco stepped back but were simultaneously pushed forward to the floor.

Harry looked back to find Hr. Callahan calmly closing the large doors and entering the room. It took several moments before Harry realized what this meant before the sickening realization poured over him like a bucket of ice water.

"Good job, Callahan," Lucius said with an evil smirk.

..............................................................................................

**ParanoiaIn2005:** Yeah, too bad the boys couldn't see how badly their godfathers are freaking out. Hmm...good question about the letter being sent to Sirius. I would just assume that the guardian would be informed as well. I'll go with the magical-guardian argument or play the AU card. Lol. I think right now, everyone's panicked and they aren't thinking very clearly. Snape's extremely worried about Draco. Sirius is too wrapped up in his terror about Harry being in danger to give much thought to Hermione...probably because he knows that the way these things usually go, Hermione always comes out alright and it's Harry who the D.E.s want. If he was calmer, he'd be worried about Hermione too. Lol, someone pointed out the "er" in Harry's letter to me before I posted, saying it was strange, but maybe it's just me, but I write letters all the time and they're very stream of conscious for me (at least when they're to friends or family) so they're full of "um"s and "er"s, so I just shrugged it off and didn't take it out. I'm so happy you liked the "I love you" bit! I know, I know, I'm cruel and horrible, depriving Harry of his birthday. Lol, I'd hope the time frame's right. I have a whole calendar just made up for this fic to make sure everything works right. I had to make sure things happened at certain times, and it was hard, let me tell you. Yeah, I feel a bit bad for Mr. Weasley actually, even though most others are ready to pound him into minced meat. His son was taken right out from under his nose and as he was being kidnapped, he called out for his dad to help him and Mr. Weasley couldn't do anything but watch Death Eaters disappear with his son. Now, he knows the only chance Ron has is for Harry to go help him and he's going to have to live with the guilt of sending Harry and friends off to rescue his son, but he's so desperate to have Ron back that he'll do it. Plus, he'll always be seen as the guy that pushed Harry to risk his life, and he knows that. I don't know, maybe it's just me because I wrote him, but I do feel for the guy. He's not a bad person, but people do things they're not proud of when they're desperate. Also, Ron's been tortured and kept in a cell for 3 days, and it probably seems a hell of a lot longer to him. He had no idea if anyone would be able to find him or come rescue him and obviously thought he was going to die. He was going a little crazy there. And now we're really seeing how much Draco's turned around. Well, hope you liked the chapter!

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Lol, I'm glad to spread the warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies and cliffies for all!! They sort of counteract each other, don't they? Oh well! Cider is awesome on adventures. Lol, yeah, Sirius needs to stop thinking...it leads to bad things lol. Don't worry, I'll make Arthur feel guilty, muahaha. Under the circumstances, I doubt anyone other than Sirius remembered it was Harry's birthday, and I think Sirius knew it wasn't the best time to go up and tell Harry "Happy Birthday." It would just make Harry even more upset. Yeah, they could be kick-ass aurors...they've had a lot of practice. You should definitely start an illegal organization at school. I think you should try to overthrow the administration and see how far you can get in having the students run the school! You could be the principal/headmaster and order that everyone's homework is to make a magic wand and come to school knowing at least one spell. Lol.

**Myr Halcyon: **I hope the Nightmare Chamber lived up to your expectation. I don't think all Death Eaters are stupid. I mean, there is the Crabbe and Goyle type, but we know that Snape and Lucius were both higher ranking and I see them as very intelligent. Even Voldemort was really smart. Their problem is that they can become very single minded and underestimate their enemies. Lol, I'm glade you like over analyzing characters, it brings me joy. My school's starting on Sept. 18...well, at least that's when I'm moving in. Actual instruction doesn't start for a few days after though.

**EriEka127, musiclover **(Good job on your AP test! I know how hard those can be. Good luck on your next one. Hope you liked the Nightmare Chamber!), **AvengingKitty, venus4280 **(I'm glad you like the plan. Isn't Dumbledore always sort of useless, save book 5 of course. Sigh. Makes you wonder if he does it on purpose or purposely leaves Harry to do all these crazy things by himself.), **therese (elmephant) **(lol, well it's my job to leave you dangling at the edge of some cliffie every once in awhile. Keeps you on your toes. The Death Eaters had no reason to think it was Hermione and Draco behind those masks. The Death Eaters doing that sort of work: guard work and messenger stuff, are probably newer/lower-rung people who don't know many other D.E.s, so they wouldn't know.), **Altariel Eldalote, acciodanrad09 **(Thanks! I'm glad you liked both chapters, especially chapter 21. I'm so glad you like the idea of the Nightmare Chamber and hope you liked how it turned out.), **m, bluerain22 **(well, they are in the dungeons with only cells and torture chambers, so it's not _that_ crazy that they'd step into one), **parts-of-a-fish-girl, lilynjamesAAF, littletoaster, fantagal, Augrey **(well, I got it up within ten days! Hope you like!), **Shikatanai **(lol, you know, if I really wanted to shock everyone, I should have just let them rescue Ron without a hitch. I think people would be left gaping if I did that. Anyway, the dungeons don't allow Portkeys or Apparition, otherwise it would be too easy for prisoners to escape by sneaking Portkeys in. Does that clear things up? Hahahaha, I am a sneaky bitch, huh? Lol), **mickeymoose, Aishwarya, curlybean **(I'm so glad you like Flawed so much! Finally! Somebody who can see where Arthur's coming from. I feel bad for the poor guy. His kid was kidnapped right in front of him and he's desperate. He's not proud of what he's doing, but it's all he can do. I'm glad someone understands.), **angelsleeping **(I'm starting college soon, but not for a few weeks, so luckily I have some free time until then. That's why I'm rapidly trying to finish writing the fic in my spare time! I'm glad the ending took you by surprise!), **Stahchild **(lol, yup, I'm evil. I can't help it! It's a quirk I'm dealing with.), **HaRrYrOxMuhSoX, Bu** (lol, glad you liked it!! Yeah, those poor low-rung Death Eaters haven't yet learned how to be original. But they will in time –pats them on back- ), **Firestar038, tati1 **(oh you poor thing! 2 weeks at the beach? Did you suffer much? Lol, I'm glad to have you back! Anywho, on my yahoo group, just look under "files" and then under "Flawed Perfection" and voila. I've noted chapters that are different. Hope you enjoy them, the last chapter and this one!), **texasjeanette **(I'm so glad you like the idea of the Nightmare Chamber. Yes, when push comes to shove, Arthur does see Harry as the hero and truly believes he can go to the rescue and come out relatively unscathed as always. But at least now Harry has Sirius and Snape to see that that's not how it is and to worry to death about him), **GhostMagic19, lyss33 **(Portkeys don't work in the dungeons. Neither does Apparition. It would be too easy for prisoners to escape otherwise. Hope that clears things up!), **Threetoedsloth **(I'm glad you liked the action for a change. I guess the climax a bit of action and angst mixed in together. Hope you continue to enjoy.), **Lia Tween **(not just half of the giant cookie! –hands over chapter-), **Babylon for Life** (lol, yeah school can be harsh. Glad I can give you something to help you get through it.), **Shadow Wolf2418 **(well, they are in a dungeon that has nothing but cells and torture chambers. It's not the only psychological torture chamber down there, I'd imagine. It's not too far-fetched they'd step into one. How would you make one? That's what magic's for m'dear. Hope that clears it up. Remus is out searching and helping the Order look for them), **Dragongirl16 **(I think they'll be able to pass this off as emergency magic doing. Dumbledore will smooth it over with the ministry. Harry's on good terms with them after getting rid of Voldie.), **tolerancelevels **(hahaha, tell your dad I'm very sorry for his phone bills, but the money's being put to good use. I'm glad you think Arthur's realistic! That makes me happy!), **lost angel92, torifire126 **(well, as I hope it explains a little better in this chapter, they're still in the dungeon which is full of cells and torture chambers. They just happened to walk into one of the many that are down there.", **DreamersDisease, ChildOfDarkness **(hahaha! Lol, well, I could call my brother's room a nightmare chamber, but that's because it's such a disaster that it'll give you nightmares if you try wading your way into it.), **Jenn the Freak **(thanks for the cookie, sorry for the torture. On my yahoo group, go to the files section and look under "Flawed Perfection" the uncut chapters are marked. Enjoy!), **autumn breeze **(lol, ah, David. Boyfriend potential, yes, but we sort of have a Harry/Ginny relationship from my fic. I'm going off to college soon so we both know it's stupid to start something, but we both know we like each other so it's a bit awkward and sad. Oh well. lol, aren't you glad you asked?), **hi-low, blulily07** (er...you're asking for a break for Harry NOW? Bad timing, lol. Sorry, it's part of the climax! I can't give him a break!), **Istalksiriusonweekends, sami1010220, Ms Hobgoblin, angel74 **(lol, if I'd let them get out easily, everyone would really be in shock.), **hpfanchrissy1502, Earthmom, sou85a, ginnygal189, Shawn Pickett **(well, of course they couldn't get out too easy. Something always goes wrong.), **Lupin123 **(well, you were right, Ron's nightmare definitely wasn't about spiders.), **Luinlothana **(welcome back! Lol, yes, I do try to leave the occasional vicious cliffhanger. It keeps you all on your toes.), **Moo, yellowpages, monica85, Musicstarlover, tansy1354, Lourdes **(lol, well, see I'm really a heart surgeon and have been lacking on patients lately, so I'm hoping to give you all enough stress to send you to me for some business), **Wynjara, americanpie, XxGoddessOfImaginaryLightxX, Von **(well, I hope you didn't hate the Nightmare Chamber part, and if you did, hopefully you liked the rest of the chapter a little better.), **A-Brighter-Dawn **(-evil grin- Lol, yeah, I'm being liberal with the cliffies lately.), **Dana, Whispyraven **(lol, well thank you very much!), **Molly Morrison **(true, the rescue didn't quite go as planned, but the intent was there. Lol, hope you enjoyed!), **Lorie1101 **(lol, that's a lot of OMGs. I'm very pleased. Wow! I can't believe you cried! That's awesome! Thanks!)


	23. Green Light

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone. **Semi-important! ** The contest entries are in. The prompt was to write a scene where Harry tells someone about the cancer whose reaction wasn't explored in Recnac. There are some really awesome entries. So everyone...head over and give them all a read through and then vote for your favorite! Remember, the voter identity is hidden so your vote will be completely confidential, meaning those who submitted entries can even vote for their own. So head over to my yahoo group (link on author's page) and let's pick our winner to see who's getting that early chapter! After this there will be a similar contest, so all those who wished they'd entered this one can enter into the next! (Prize is an early chapter) Well, on with the chapter!

âââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ.

"You traitor!" he yelled furiously, jumping to his feet. "You back-stabbing coward! I trusted you! You couldn't even confront us! You had to trick us like a filthy little snake!"

Callahan flicked his wand and instantly brought Harry down with the Cruciatus. After all he'd been through that night, he couldn't help but scream as he writhed with pain on the ground.

Finally it ended and Harry sat up panting and shaking. Draco helped him to his feet.

"Now Harry, it was really your own fault in trusting me. I mean really, did you seriously believe it was just a coincidence that I was the only healer in all of St. Mungo's who had happened to taken a few quick courses in Muggle illnesses right before you came in? How gullible are you? I studied Muggle illnesses because it was all over the Prophet how you had had Muggle cancer. When we started testing out our connections with your scar, we knew it would be only a matter of time before you had to go to St. Mungo's since the Hogwart's school nurse was out on vacation."

"How did you know that?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Didn't you hear? Her husband won a trip to the Caribbean and they both dearly needed a vacation," he said with an evil smirk. "Anyway, I needed to convince you it was an unknown side-effect of getting that cancer taken away so I could study the effects of our experiments."

"Your experiments?" Harry choked out, not believing what he was hearing.

"Lucius didn't become our new leader for nothing, Harry. He's done an incredible amount of research into your scar. Whereas our old master thought it was a troublesome connection and tried to cut it off, Lucius theorized it could be a useful weapon. He was also the one to figure out that just because the Dark Lord is now gone, doesn't mean the connection disappeared. You were linked to the Dark Lord and so were we, inadvertently linking everyone with the Dark Mark to you, as luck would have it. Lucius has figured out a way to send you pain through your scar, even though he seems to be keeping the knowledge of _how_ to himself. I guess it won't matter much now. Obviously, as you've experienced though these headaches of yours, our connection differs slightly, but apparently distance plays a factor as to whether you can feel that place the pain is originating from is your scar, as I can see from the lovely scratches on your forehead."

"All that testing" Harry said in disbelief.

"Yes, didn't you find it a little too coincidental that you always got those headaches during our meetings? You know, for a while we didn't think the whole thing was working since you didn't come running the first time. Of course, the second time finally got you and you weren't stupid enough to think it was an attack. Actually, I guess you were right, in a way," Callahan said with an evil grin. "The fainting problem was an inconvenience fixed with the constant ingesting of a potion I designed myself. Of course, we originally hoped to use it as an excuse to get you alone and get to you that way, but your idiotic godfather and Snape wouldn't leave you alone for a second and took my wand whenever they left the damn room. At least we got to keep you under our thumb for a while; keeping our enemies close and all that. I even got to have a little fun on the side, pretending to heal you when you were sick while really making you worse. Of course, I finally had to heal you when Snape was becoming suspicious, but it worked out well enough. We wouldn't want you to have been delusional when news of your friend's kidnap came."

"But Professor Snape tested the potion you gave me!" Harry protested.

"Snape tested _a_ potion, which happened to have been brought in a different vial than the one I gave you first. He was the only one who was suspicious of me, the traitor"

"You're the traitor!" Harry yelled angrily. He was so mad at himself for not seeing this.

"Potter, Potter, Potter," Lucius said evilly, casually walking closer to the two. Harry maneuvered himself in front of Draco, who was desperately not trying to show the terror he felt as his father approached, "how can you condemn Hr. Callahan's actions when you've befriended a traitor yourself?"

"How can you call Draco a traitor when _you_ turned on _him_?" Harry spat, scooting back a bit to more fully block his friend. "You're supposed to be his father."

"Are you really the one to be spouting family values when, from what I understand, your own uncle tried to kill you?" Lucius sneered maliciously.

Harry glared at him hatefully.

"I thought so. Now Draco, come say hello to your father," he said in a sneering tone.

"You're not my father anymore," Draco said, sounding very confident, though Harry could tell he did not feel that way.

"You made a grave mistake in switching sides, Draco," Lucius said menacingly. "How many times have I told you that those opposed to our cause would fail? You've chosen the losing side."

"I'd rather be on the losing side than fight for your cause!" Draco yelled, his temper rising. "I tried to tell you before that I didn't want to do the things you were making me do! I tried telling you that I didn't want to hurt people or kill them, but you didn't listen! You'd just hit me every time I tried to tell you and now you act so surprised when I did the thing I was trying to tell you I was heading toward in the first place! It's your own fault you didn't see it coming! You're a horrible excuse for a father!" Draco yelled, venting his anger as he came out from behind Harry to stand next to him.

"You're a pitiful excuse for a Malfoy, Draco. You've shamed the family name," Lucius sneered.

"Good. I'm glad. I hate that family anyway! They're a bunch of selfish cowards who think they're so bloody special. Well you're not. You are no different from any of these others who have the Dark Mark burned into their arm! You've all crawled around on the ground and kissed people's feet and tortured innocent people," Draco continued.

"_Muggles _and _Mudbloods _are not people, Draco! How many times do I have to tell you?" Lucius yelled.

"Well, a _Mudblood_ defeated the Dark Lord! And guess what? The Dark Lord was a Mudblood too! His father was a Muggle, or didn't you know?" Draco screamed.

There was a shocked silence.

"Liar!" a Death Eater yelled furiously.

"He told me himself," Harry said. "Or didn't any of you notice that his father's grave was in a Muggle cemetery?"

There was another silence as the Death Eaters tried to grasp this concept.

"Well, we have a pureblood leader now," Lucius said firmly. "But since you both are such good friends with our enemies, I think it's time we had a little chat."

Two Death Eaters marched up and forced the two boys into sitting positions, back-to-back, before Lucius conjured ropes around their torsos, tying them together.

"Are we having fun yet?" he asked with an evil cackle. Harry and Draco glared at him. "Now, if you two cooperate and tell us what we need to know, we'll make your deaths quick and relatively painless. And Draco, if you do this, beg for forgiveness, and pledge your allegiance to me, I'll consider actually letting you live and letting you join our ranks. Of course, you'll be kept under very tight watch, but you'll be alive."

"Never," Draco spat.

"Now, now, Draco, don't make up your mind so quickly. We'll see if we can't persuade you," Lucius said with an evil grin. "Now, I hear you've been staying with your godfather. Severus betrayed us and I want to know how to get to him. I want to know how to get passed his wards or another way we can get to him. I also want to know the exact members of the Order and any other information you two have about this. You could make this easy and tell us now, or we can break you down until you tell us everything you want. What'll it be?"

Neither boy said a word.

Lucius walked up to Harry and grabbed the boy's face in his hand, turning it so the emerald eyes met cold gray. "How about your godfather or those trashy Weasleys you seem to be so close to? They're in it, aren't they? I know Arthur and his wife were in it last time around. Who else, now? Their older sons, perhaps? How many of their sons are in the Order?"

Harry spit in his face with a hateful glare.

Lucius smacked Harry across the cheek before wiping his own face off with a handkerchief. He circled around to his struggling son.

"What about you, Draco? Want to answer the question? You know what I'll do to you if you don't and it's such a simple answer. Or how about my questions about your godfather?"

"I'll never tell you anything," Draco spat.

Lucius stood and pointed his wand at Harry. "We'll see about that. _Crucio_!"

The spell hit Harry and a scream ripped unwillingly from his throat as his body twitched and writhed, trying to stop the pain or get away from the ropes, anything to free himself from the agony.

When it stopped, Harry shakily reminded himself to breathe. Draco was breathing unevenly and Harry was wondering if the blonde was going to cry as the Death Eaters all around them laughed.

"Now, Draco, is there anything you'd like to tell me?" Lucius asked with a satisfied smirk.

"Draco, don't tell him anything, no matter what," Harry said through clenched teeth.

Draco took a deep breath. "No. I won't," he said, but with less conviction than before.

"Your call," Lucius said with a glint in his eye as he cast the torturous curse on Harry once again. Harry's back arched into Draco's. He tried to bite back a scream but found one wrenching its way out anyway.

He once again found himself collapsing against Draco's back. The blonde was shaking and trying to look over his shoulder at Harry, but couldn't quite see him.

"Draco, whatever he does, don't tell him anything," Harry whispered.

"Draco, do you want your friend to suffer? Are you enjoying this?" Lucius asked evilly.

Draco shook his head vehemently. "No! I don't and I'm not! Just leave him alone. Torture _me_, instead!"

Harry was about to protest, but stopped himself. He was beginning to catch onto the way the Death Eaters worked, and his protests would only make it more likely that Draco would be tortured.

Predictably, Lucius continued to cast the Cruciatus Curse on Harry and the more Draco begged for him to stop, the longer he left it on Harry. Several times, Harry though Draco was close to blurting out the information out of guilt, but remained strong and didn't. The blonde grasped Harry's hands, giving him any bit of comfort he could as the boy was tortured over and over again.

In any other situation, Harry was ashamed to say he would have been begging and pleading for them to stop, but he forced himself to keep quiet for Draco's sake, biting his bottom lip until it bled to prevent himself from making things that much harder for the two of them.

"You can stop this at any time too, Potter. Just tell me what I want to know and I'll just move on to killing you and end all this pain," Lucius continued to remind him, but that was something Harry was certain would never come out of his mouth, no matter how long he was tortured.

As he was continuously put under the curse, Draco's pleading and the laughter of the Death Eaters faded into the background as his mind buzzed with thoughts. He couldn't help but think of what had happened to Neville's parents, though, and prayed he wouldn't be driven to insanity. That seemed even worse than death. At least in death he'd see his parents and die with dignity, but insanity would give him no one and he would never want his friends to see him like that.

He also thought of Sirius, how he'd never get to truly apologize for doing this. He was finally realizing that they weren't going to make it out of here alive. He would never get to see his friends again. He had fulfilled his promise of returning Ron safely, and Hermione had also made it back, but what about Draco? Draco would never have even considered coming if Harry hadn't gone and the blonde's death would be on Harry's shoulders. Draco had trusted him and in return, Harry had led him to his death just when he had been starting a really good life with Snape.

"Sorry for what? Harry? Sorry for what?" he heard Draco ask in a choked voice, bringing him back to reality.

He realized he had been repeating, "I'm sorry, Draco," over and over again. The Death Eaters were all laughing at him, mocking him, but Draco held his hands tightly with his own trembling hands. Harry started panicking that he'd already started going crazy. He was shaking all over as perspiration clung in little droplets to his face. His breathing was erratic and he was whimpering slightly as he continued to feel the remnants of pain and anticipated the next bout of cursing.

"I'm sorry I got you into this," he whimpered to Draco, hanging his head as his head pounded furiously so he didn't have to watch the world spin around him dizzily.

"Don't you dare blame yourself, Harry, it was my choice," Draco whispered quickly before Harry was hit with the curse again.

After Draco refused to answer him a few more times, Lucius began to get angry.

He undid the ropes and Harry immediately lay down on the floor, shaking. Draco was at his side instantly, checking him over, though there wasn't much he could do.

Harry focused on calming his shivering body and struggled to sit up. He wished he had the hope that they'd be back in safety soon, but Harry couldn't help but think that this was it. This was how he was going to spend the very short rest of his life, with no relief from pain until he died. It wasn't a comforting thought and Harry tried to push it away rather than succumb to despair.

"Fine," Lucius yelled, enraged, "you've made your decision, Draco, and it's time to pay the consequences. You want to be on Potter's side? Let me teach you a thing or two about what it's like to be on the losing side."

He nodded and a few Death Eaters marched up and seized Draco, dragging him struggling and screaming over to his father before dumping him unceremoniously at his feet. Draco scrambled away, but the Death Eaters circled around him and his father, leaving him no escape.

Lucius raised his wand and cast the Cruciatus Curse on his son. The Death Eaters laughed as Draco screamed and writhed on the ground, curling up into a little ball for that insignificant feel of protection.

Harry, meanwhile, backed away slowly. Any of the Death Eaters that glanced over at him saw a horror struck boy, shrinking away in shock as he watched his friend being tortured. A few months ago, Harry would have dived into the crowd and tried to bring down Lucius despite the sure failure of it, but spending so much time with two Slytherins had taught him a thing or two. Now was not the time for senseless bravery, but time for a little Slytherin cunning. He had been intended for that house, after all. He had quickly come up with a crazy idea, but it at least had a better chance of working than just diving in to try to help Draco.

When he felt himself back up into the wall, he reached up and grabbed the swords displayed there, holding them behind his back as he crept back up. They were long, thin, ceremonial swords, but they would do. In fact, they'd work better as they were closer to fencing foils than some of the heavier ones.

As soon as he reached a Death Eater, he swiped his foot underneath the cloaked figure's. The Death Eater was brought to the ground and Harry instantly had the point of one of the swords at his throat.

Lucius stopped the curse as they all turned and looked at him. Most pointed their wands at him out of reflex, but stopped. _Expelliarmus_ was meant for wands, as it sent the weapon flying the way of the caster, and nobody wanted to have sword flying at them. Besides, Harry would have time to drive the sword down if any of them started saying a spell before that spell hit him.

Draco lay on the floor in his ball, crying and shaking in pain. The blonde opened his eyes and saw what was happening. He started to crawl over to where Harry was, but his father reached down and grabbed him by the hair, and Draco was pulled back with a cry, his fingers clawing at his father's hand.

"No one move. Now, let him go," Harry said in a menacing growl. "Let him go or you'll have one less in your ranks and the rest of your followers will know how little you care about them."

The Death Eater below him pleaded with Lucius to follow Harry's orders.

"Oh Potter," Lucius drawled, "you don't have it in you to kill a man."

"I've already killed Voldemort. If it's down to this, Draco or him, I'd do it with a clear conscience. Self-defense, last resort, you know how it is. My loyalty to my friends is far stronger than my reservations in killing a man who has delighted in the tortures of others, including myself," Harry said with a calm he didn't know he possessed. Of course, on the inside his heart was clenching with fear. He knew Lucius wouldn't care about one less follower, but if he carelessly let this one die, he would lose support among the Death Eaters as the role of leader implied a role of protector. "Besides," he continued darkly, "being under the Cruciatus Curse so much in the last hour has really left me feeling less than amicable."

Harry lifted the other sword in his other hand, thanking Merlin it was somewhat light and quickly put it to another's throat.

"Lie down next to him if you don't want your throat slit," Harry threatened and followed the masked figure with the sword until he laid down next to the other. Harry prayed nobody would recognize the emptiness of his threats. Lucius was right, he doubted he could ever kill someone, at least not like this with the other person not even having a chance.

Lucius looked at him with fury and tossed his son forward. Draco scrambled forward to Harry and shakily got to his feet. Harry handed him one of the ends of the swords. Now Harry wished he had thought this through a little more because he hadn't the slightest clue what to do.

"Get to your feet," Draco spat. The two hostages slowly followed orders. Unfortunately, standing the two were bigger than the boys and would be harder to control.

Just as Harry realized this, so did the two Death Eaters. One knocked the sword away, getting himself a slice in the arm, while the other simply dodged forward out of the reach of the blade.

Harry and Draco didn't have to wait to be told to run and dashed toward the door, ducking and dodging spells as well as they could. One spell hit the blade of Harry's sword and it was all Harry could do not to drop it as the blade vibrated with the blast. Yet, the metal had apparently reflected the spell, hitting one of the Death Eaters and bringing them down in a screaming mess. Two masked figures blocked their way, now brandishing their own swords.

"You want to play sword fighting boys?" Lucius cackled evilly. "Well, this should be entertaining. Let's see how you fare. Don't kill them yet. We'll see about Potter, but _I_ want the honors of teaching my son his final lesson."

Draco maneuvered himself so Harry and he were back to back, not touching to give them room to work, but close enough to make sure no one could get behind them.

Harry paled. He wasn't sure how much these Death Eaters knew about sword fighting, but he wasn't very confidant about his own sword fighting skills. He always lost to Draco in fencing and he wasn't used to the weight of the sword. He remembered Draco saying he'd practiced with swords before, and was relieved at least his friend should fare well.

Harry didn't have much more time to think as a sword was swung toward him. He blocked it with his own with a loud clink before quickly swinging it to block another's sword. Two Death Eaters were fighting him. Luckily, that's all that could really be allowed in the space or the Death Eaters would risk injuring each other in the close proximity. But two was definitely more than he'd ever fought before and struggled to concentrate on both.

He fought as well as he could but had some very close misses, unsure if the two fighting him would really heed Lucius's words about killing him. Harry cried out as one of the blades caught him in the side of his arm and he nearly dropped his sword. He ignored the pain and continued to defend himself, occasionally trying to get a jab in, but it wasn't working as well with the new weapon and two opponents.

He smirked when he finally swiped one of them across the chest, leaving only a shallow cut, but leaving the Death Eater disabled enough that another had to take his place.

At one point, Harry caught a glimpse of how Draco was doing and was very impressed to see several people on the floor gripping their injuries. Draco was currently fighting two opponents, but to him, it looked easy, his feet moving in graceful patterns. He was definitely in his element.

Harry was brought back to reality in hearing a whooshing sound through the air and swung his sword up to block the one bearing down on him. He put everything Draco had taught him into use, but most of the crowd was filtering over to help fight Draco. Harry continued dropping more people with shallow injuries that merely prevented them from continuing the sword fighting until one lunged at him with his sword. Harry ducked to the side, keeping his sword forward. His blade plunged into the person's stomach.

Harry's stomach fell as the cloaked figure hit the floor and didn't move. He looked at his sword, coated in blood half deep in a stunned horror. He had killed someone.

There was a loud clang by his ear and he looked up to see Draco having barely blocked Harry from someone's sword. The blonde swiped his blade across the man's leg to bring him down.

"Keep going, Harry. Don't give up now," Draco said quickly before maneuvering his blade to block two swords at once.

Harry swallowed heavily and continued to fight with all he had.

Suddenly, the Death Eaters he was fighting backed away and Harry turned confusedly just in time to see Lucius approaching him from the side before the man swiped a sword in one fluid motion across Harry's chest.

Harry dropped his sword as his hands clasped his chest, not quite comprehending what had happened as a burning wave of pain spread through his chest. He pulled his hands away and saw they were drenched in blood. The wound didn't seem too deep, but it sure hurt and bled like hell.

Lucius advanced on him furiously and Harry stumbled backwards. The blonde man drove the butt of his sword into Harry's chest, bringing the raven-haired boy down with a flash of pain.

Harry looked desperately over at Draco, but the blonde was busy, now surrounded by the remaining Death Eaters who were able or skilled enough to try to fight him. Harry groped around on the floor for his sword as best he could lying on his back. Just as his fingers brushed the handle, Lucius had his sword trained on Harry's throat, his cold, gray eyes glinting furiously.

"You're a meddlesome fool, Potter. I told you once it would lead you to the same end as your parents. Today is that day, boy. Of course, they were given a swift death and you'll be granted no such mercy," he hissed, sliding the blade of his sword along Harry's cheek, not cutting him, merely sending chills down his spine as he reached his fingers just a little bit further along the handle of his fallen sword.

"You're going to fail, you know," Harry said with a glare, keeping Lucius focused on his face as his hand closed around the sword handle. "Dumbledore's on to you and he can kick your arse any day."

Harry knocked the sword tip away from his face and swung his own sword up, slicing a deep cut into the blonde man's upper leg.

Lucius cried out in fury and whipped out his wand as he kicked Harry's sword away. He spat a spell Harry didn't know and blue light hit Harry's stomach.

Harry screamed in anguish as his stomach seemed to completely cramp up, sending spikes of pain through his torso and down to his toes.

When the pain ceased he looked up to see gray eyes close to his, but they were filled with concern.

Draco helped Harry sit up, looking worriedly at the emerald-eyed boy's chest. Harry looked down and saw the front of his shirt was now nearly dripping with blood.

"It's not that bad," Harry said quietly with a wince. "It's not that deep, I don't know why it's bleeding so much."

"Play time is over boys," Lucius sneered, obviously incensed that the two, especially his son, had fared so well against his Death Eaters. "I don't know what you hoped to gain with that little charade, but as you can see, you're worse off than you started."

Harry looked around at all the Death Eaters clutching their wounds. It didn't seem to him that they were worse off. If they were going to die, he was glad to at least have kicked _some_ Death Eater ass.

He was about to relate these thoughts to Lucius, but he was hauled to his feet by a few Death Eaters as other's restrained Draco. Harry winced in pain as the sudden movement caused a streak of pain through the wound on his chest, but remained silent.

"That was a foolish move, Draco," Lucius said, clearly incensed. "Don't you realized that fighting against me will only make your death more painful?"

"I'd rather _die_ fighting you than _live_ kneeling before you," Draco shouted, his adrenaline kicking in and making him feel a bit more courageous.

"Righteous words, Draco," Lucius sneered, "but I don't believe you've really thought about the consequences of fighting me. Traitors are not granted instant or noble deaths. They watch as their friends are tortured before they themselves are only granted death after begging for it, and even then, we'll only grant the request if we get bored. Let's see if you reconsider your place in this war."

Callahan and another Death Eater came forward and roughly grabbed Harry's arms and forced him to the center of the room, where the Death Eaters made a circle around him so they all could see what was going to happen.

Draco ran forward to try to get to his friend, but two Death Eaters grabbed him as well, bringing him to the circle to make sure he would see what was going to happen to Harry.

"Now, Potter, I think you've had enough of the Cruciatus Curse before, and frankly I'm bored of using it on you. So, I thought back to what information my son gave me about you. I heard you're familiar with the effects of a dementor, correct?" Lucius asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry paled slightly. He didn't have a way to protect himself from dementors without his wand, and he had a feeling that he'd be relieving something more recent than his parents' deaths if they came near him. He'd just gone through living his nightmare about Sirius; he wasn't sure how much more he could take.

"My son told me all about the effect they have on you and I can see by your expression he was speaking the truth."

Harry glanced over at Draco who looked overwhelmed with guilt. Harry tried to silently communicate to him that Harry knew it wasn't his fault. Besides, that had been in third year while they were still enemies.

"You'll be interested to know that there's a little spell that recreates the effects of the Dementors, though magnified. It makes you feel like you are actually reliving your worst memory. Now, they say that if your worst memory involves you getting physically injured, the spell will actually make your body re-experience the injuries and I've always been curious to see if that was true," Lucius said cruelly.

The Death Eaters sniggered as Harry felt as if his heart had stopped. He didn't want to relieve his worst memories. He'd rather have the Cruciatus Curse or be tortured or anything but relive that night at the Stensons.

"Don't! Leave him alone!" Draco yelled.

"Oh don't worry, Draco. You'll get your turn," Lucius said mockingly as he raised his wand. Harry couldn't help but look at the wand with terror. "_Iromem el birret_!"

Suddenly, Harry felt as if he weren't in the room full of Death Eaters anymore. Instead, he was lying on the floor of the Stensons. He sat up abruptly, but a hand covered his mouth and slammed his head back into the ground. Sure enough, it was Uncle Vernon.

Draco watched as Harry's eyes snapped shut and his body fell to the floor as the Death Eaters let him drop.

"No, no, no, no" Harry whimpered in terror. Suddenly, a large gash appeared on his forehead in the exact place it had that night. "It's not real. It's not real. It's not real," Harry began chanting to himself as he had in the nightmare room.

'_Good, Harry. That's right_,' Draco silently urged his friend. '_It's not real._'

"No, please! Not again!" Harry suddenly shrieked, eyes shut tight as he tossed and turned on the floor, caught in some horrible nightmare. "Sirius, please help me! Sirius! Don't let him take me there! He's going to hurt me!" Harry called out desperately.

Draco watched in silent horror as Harry's screams suddenly became more desperate and pained and injuries of all sorts began to appear. When the scar on Harry's wrist suddenly started bleeding furiously, Draco had to look away before he was sick. Something caught his eye.

Looking down into his pocket, he saw two wands. He was momentarily confused as he knew the Death Eaters had his and the only other one he remembered having was one of the Weasley's fake wands. Suddenly, it clicked. The Portkey. It was Ron's wand. They had decided to have Draco take it since Harry was going to be searched by the Death Eaters when caught. The extra wand the Death Eaters had found on Harry earlier was not Ron's, but one of the fake ones Draco had grabbed from the twins' room.

Draco quickly averted his eyes, knowing it would look very suspicious if he was staring into his pocket. Harry's pleas brought his attention back to the middle of the circle.

Harry was lying in a pool of his own blood, tears streaming from his eyes. "Stop! Please, make it stop!" he begged, though Draco wasn't sure whom he was talking to. "Just let me die! I can't take it any more! I'm sorry Sirius! I just want it to end! Let me die!" Harry curled into a ball and another streak of blood appeared on the back of his shirt.

The Death Eaters laughed with entertainment.

"I told you I'd have him begging for me to kill him," Lucius said smugly. "How pathetic."

Draco looked at his father with pure hatred. For a brief moment, he imagined himself in his father's position. That's where he would have ended up if he hadn't switched sides. He had never been more thankful for his decision. How could anyone find this entertaining?

Suddenly, Harry's screams ceased and all the injuries and blood disappeared. At first, Draco thought his father was showing mercy toward the young Gryffindor, but quickly realized that the spell had automatically ended when the worst part of the memory ended.

Harry's eyes opened slowly and he looked around at the laughing Death Eaters with a deadened expression. He didn't have the strength to get up.

"You begged for death, Potter, and I'm very willing to oblige," Lucius said with an evil grin. He raised his wand and Harry shut his eyes.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Through his closed lids, Harry saw a flash of green.

But, moments later, he didn't _feel_ dead.

He cautiously opened his eyes and noticed that Lucius wasn't standing above him anymore, but was crumpled on the ground near him. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened until he looked over at Draco who was holding a wand out with a shaky hand and a terrified look on his face.

Draco had killed his father.

ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ

**ParanoiaIn2005:** hey, better late than never! I know, Harry shouldn't even bother being optimistic, because that's precisely when things go wrong. Well, ironically, the torture chamber might be good for Harry in the long run, now that he can see how much he's worth to Ron and Ron has a better idea of how to help Harry. Yeah, I've always loved Ron. He's a very realistic character. Thank you! Most people are furious at Hermione for leaving, but I see it as her being smart and brave enough to know that the best thing she can do is to get out of the way. She's very loyal, so that must have been a hard thing for her to do. Sometimes the most heroic thing to do is to not try to play hero. Lol, yeah, Draco and Harry are both pretty even on the Big Heroic Deeds scale. Don't worry, I do promise guilt for Mr. Weasley. He's already starting to feel it, one of the reasons he's been a bit quiet the last times we saw him, but I'll make sure everyone gets their vengeful fix of Arthur guilt. Now I'm majorly curious to know what your theory was on Callahan. Was it right? I think Harry and Draco were so desperate in the situation they were in that seeing Callahan, someone Harry trusts, was such a relief, they didn't really have the chance to reflect on the suspicious nature of his presence there. If things had been calmer, at least Draco would have seen through him. Which one was your contest entry?

**Wiccan PussyKat: **hahaha! Since when did you grow a beard? You're trying to be like Dumbledore, aren't you? Yes, Harry does seem to have a knack for near-death (and just plain death) experiences, so it's no wonder his friends are worried about the kid! Yeah, Harry has the self-worth of an unattractive slug, but maybe this will help him realize he's worth something, and let Ron know that Harry still needs help in that department. The why of the whole Callahan ordeal was explained partially in this chapter. The rest will be explained later if you haven't guessed it already. Harry's going to have major trust issues after thisâeven more so than now! I personally think Hermione taking Ron and leaving was a very brave thing to do. She realized that the best way she could help Harry was to get out of the way, and considering that she's very loyal, that had to be very difficult for her. Don't worry, I went a bit easy on Dracoâat least in comparison to Harry. Ah creating merry hell: one of the things I do best. No, the amulet was not kept in a safe, though many readers suggested it. Sev wanted Draco to wear it at all times so it could save his life if needed. I doubt he intended for his godson to give it to Hermione and Ron, though. Ah, Harry torture, fun stuff. Okay, give your good impression before starting your secret D.A. club. Er, the uncut version of the story is no more. It has merged with this version, sorry!

**Marci018**: Lol, I know, I'm evil! I can't help it. Lol, I've read fics where I love Lucius and fics where I hate him. But of course, evil! Lucius makes it way nobler of Draco and more dramatic each time he plays hero, so I leaned toward evilâactually, I more leaped toward evil. Yup, Lucius is an egocentric asshole, but he's actually very smartâunfortunately for him, he's too greedy and underestimates his enemies too much (though not as much as good old Voldie), which is his undoing in the end.

**Lupin123: **I'm glad you liked the nightmare chamber, it was mighty fun to write, let me tell you. I was originally going to have Vernon come in, but then decided that that wasn't Harry's worst nightmare, so I tried to incorporate a lot of stuff into one giant nightmare from hell. You're one of the few to comment on the amulet that Draco gave to Ron and Hermione. I'm glad you picked that up. I'm so happy you were surprised by Callahan; it's so much more fun that way. Hopefully this chapter answered some of your questions about the whole thing.

**Luinlothana: **Yeah, I didn't feel much like getting into Draco's nightmares, but I'm sure you can probably guess what they are, especially after this chapter of basically living them. I'm glad you caught that little paradox. The torture chamber might actually help Harry in the long run. Nah, not cliffies on the ends of ALL my chapters, but I do happen to be in a cliffie type area of the fic. In the dire situation they were in, Draco and Harry were so thankful to see someone they trusted that they didn't question it as much as they should have and given a bit more time to actually think, Draco, at least, probably would have realized how fishy it all was. But Harry really did trust him and so he didn't question it too much. The Dark Marks are tattoos burnt into the D.E.'s skin and I don't think they would fade. They have magic behind them and that magic would have to be removed, in my opinion. I don't think the mark is powered by psychological aspects, but by magic, and Lucius figured out how to use that magic and that connection to his advantage. He's actually a pretty smart guy, even if he doesn't always seem it. I like the scene ideas, but unfortunately, Harry's wandless magic is very truly gone and not going to make a reappearance, even when he needs it the most, but I do like reading your ideas! But you're right, this fic is soon coming to an end, and this will be the last fic of the series.

**Myr Halcyon: **lol, if you predicted the Callahan thing, you are very entitled to your happy dance. The Nightmare Chamber sort of banked on the whole "the only thing you have to fear is fear itself" sort of deal, where the only way they could master it was to master their fears. It was fun stuff, let me tell you, lol. I'm still a bit unsure of what to do about Ron's knowledge of what happened in the Nightmare Chamber. On the one hand, telling some of the adults might help them help Harry, but on the other hand, Harry could take that as a serious breach of trust. Lol, well I'm glad you could find symbolism in the broken clock, even if it was unintentional symbolism, but hey, it makes me feel smarter to think I have symbolism. Actually, closets in Flawed are a symbol, but I won't get into that right now. Thank you for the great review!

**acciodanrad9: **thank you! I'm so happy you liked it! I'm not sure what to do about Ron's knowledge of Harry's nightmare because though telling some adults about it could help them help Harry, Harry might also consider it a major breach of trust. The glass table is more of a symbol of all the abuse that went on at the Dursleys, but I'm sure that particular event had a big impact on Harry, especially as it was what led to the discovery of the abuse by Snape. Your many suspicions and predictions will be addressed soon, never fear.

**Laterose: **Lol. That's a very good reaction to have for the end of some of these chapters, lol. I'm so glad you've just rediscovered the story! Thank you so much for the compliments on my writing style; it means a whole lot. Lol, you're allowed to read fanfiction in trig class? That's awesome! Except I would never pay attention and get kicked out, but that's not the point. I'm glad you liked the movie prank scene. That was a whole lot of fun to write. Lol, I'm glad you liked Callahan up until he was revealed as evil! It makes the whole thing a whole lot more fun. I loved lulling everyone into a false sense of security about him. See, in all my English classes I've taken, we've been told not to use the same names for things over and over. I can't keep saying Draco over and over so I have to think of other ways to say it so it keeps making sense, especially when you have to be specific in order to keep from having confusion as to who I'm referring to. Sorry it annoys you, but at least it's better than having no idea who I'm talking about. Thanks for the wonderfully long review.

**Lorie1101 **(Lol, I'm glad you liked the chapter! It was definitely a bit crazy, but I guess you could say that about a lot of my chapters. I guess you'll see what happens soon enough! And thank you for the hug! Sometimes, an author just needs a good cuddle, lol), **Clo Veridian, from the silent planet, HaRrYrOxMuhSoX, lost angel92 **(you got it! Callahan was a bad cookie), **Lady Pallas, tati1, Bu **(Harry bashing galore! Even more so in this chapter! Doesn't it just give you a warm fuzzy feeling? Or maybe that's just me.), **Von **(well, Mr. Weasleyâwhat can I say about him? I feel sorry for him. He's gotten his son back, which he's mighty relieved about, and the guilt has started settling in, even if you might not see it on the surface as much.), **Earthmom **(evil grin, we'll see!), **Babylon for Life** (Yay! It's the most fun when I catch people by surprise with these things. Of course you can join my yahoo group! Just set up a yahoo email address, which is easy and absolutely free and then click on the link. There aren't too many unedited chapters, but there are deleted scenes and a wicked cool contest going on right now, lol. If you need any help getting in, just email me.), **cherry8914 **(I'm so happy to catch you by surprise then! It's much more fun that way! Lol, if you reread the fic, you'll find many, many clues, many that I point out in this chapter. I'm so happy you like the story!!)**,Velith **(Well, I'm so glad you've been reading the chapters despite your busy schedule and am happy you finally got a chance to put in a review. I'm glad you suspected Laura, it actually means you're an observant reader as I put a couple questionable things about her in the fic that I was surprised that not many people caught, lol. I'm really glad you like my O.C.s though!)**, Dakana Warrior **(lol, glad to take you by surprise), **lyss33, AutumnBreeze **(Hopefully this chapter will answer some of your questions, others will be answered a bit later. Another year with David? Try less than two more weeks, I'm going to college on the 18th. We wouldn't be able to start up something strong enough to do the long distance relationship thing. But it's okay, hopefully some of the college guys will measure up. But that's great with you and your boyfriend!), **MissLilyStar **(lol, um anger management classes might be in order. Lol. But yeah, Callahan deserves the anger, the filthy traitor), **ThreeToedSloth **(thank you! Yeah, Callahan was too good to be true. Don't worry, I'll make Arthur feel as guilty as all hell. Lol, go Draco! Don't tell him he acted like a Gryff though, or he'd be afraid. I guess hanging around with Harry has influenced him more than he thought.), **Whispyraven **(as much as I love your compliments, please don't feel obligated to praise me just because I mistakenly thought you didn't like the story! Criticism's perfectly fine! I'm pretty skeptical about your whole grade reading this fic, but thanks for that anyways, lol. Thank you for the compliments!), **parts-of-a-fish-girl, Rosealinde **(always trust your instincts!), **mysticXesperanza **(no, they didn't use Voldie's old wand. Lucius found a way to just use his own to do it.), **DreamersDisease **(lol, well if it were illegal, then I would have been arrested and I wouldn't be able to write another chapter!), **TheSerpentAndTheLion **(ooh! I'm so glad you caught onto that little tidbit of Harry calling Callahan a D.E. when he was sick. I was so afraid that would give it away right there, but just had to take the risk. I'm happy you liked the nightmare chamber. It was mighty fun. Hopefully this chapter answered some of your questions.), **Dana (mp), sou85a, Opal Rain Dragon, Ms Hobgoblin **(hahaha! I wish, but thank you so much for the fantastic compliment!), **stahchild **(you are very right. Without at least some mandatory Harry suffering in every chapter, the fic would simply implode.), **shadow-phoenix1502, kamahpfan, Rhiain, Siri Kat, Catti **(yes, I'm pretty mean to the poor kid, it's a personality flaw that I'm trying to deal with, lol), **Shawn Pickett **(you're definitely right. Sure they weren't fond of the Nightmare Chamber, but really, it was ultimately a good thing. Glad to surprise you with Callahan's arrival), **angel74 **(thanks! I'm glad you liked it! I'm so happy Callahan's Death Eater status caught you by surpriseâit just makes things so much better. Lol, well thank you, but now it's time for you to get another chapter out!), **Painted Fire **(lol, glad to render you comatose), **Istalksiriusonweekends **(yup, he's a baddie, hopefully the chapter answered your questions!), **blink gurl017, Jenn the Freak **(yup, you got it. Me? Love Harry torture? What would give you that idea? Lol, um, I'll give some cliffie-less chapters eventually, promise.), **A-Brighter-Dawn, GhostMagic19 **(come on! Cliffies are fun! Lol.), **Nicole **(thanks! Glad to take you by surprise! Lol), **The Black Quill **(Thank you so much for the wonderful compliment. Being compared to the great JKR is the ultimate compliment.), **KkareBear, Catiechan **(Yeah, Siri and Arthur aren't going to be getting along too famously after this whole episode. Lol, no, this fic isn't slash, though my beta insists this chapter has major slashy undertones. He thinks the little slasher in me is surfacing. I didn't mean to do it, I swear! They're just good friends, who, yes, were sort of holding hands, but that was solely because Harry was being tortured, scout's honor, lol.), **Charlie Quill, Musicstarlover **(you always have to be suspicious of those too good to be true, especially when they're my creations, muahahaha, lol.), **ChildOfDarkness **(hahaha, quick! Hide from the frilly pink! Well, hopefully you enjoyed the lovely Harry pain from the chapter! Don't worry, Harry's my favorite, so he's always first in line for torture), **Amy Da Great **(Lol!), **maya100** (Yeah, Snape will probably gloat about his rightness for awhile, or berate himself for not trusting his instincts and realizing Callahan was a Death Eater.), **fantagal, torifire126, lilynjamesAAF, Colleen, azntgr01, texasjeanette **(Don't feel bad about being lulled into security about Callahan, that was my intentions after all. Cheers! Unfortunately, I don't think they can do that with the Portkey, but you'll just have to see what happens!), **Leena7 **(deep bow, why thank you.), **Lourdes **(Well, Draco's been through a lot of life-changing stuff lately and Harry's been rubbing off on him a bit. Yes, I know what you mean about Hermione. All I can say for her is that she's in a bit of shock right now. She's already lost Harry once and now she had to leave him to the D.E.s and is feeling very guilty. She wants the comfort of Ron's presence, even if it's not the sensible thing to do at the moment.), **Impish Delight **(hahaha! I'd like to see you try to soften up these cliffs, muahahaha!), **Xaralai **(yeah, I guess that sort of is what the chamber was like), **Magic Marauder, UnlimitedUnknown **(erâthanks, perhaps. I've hired some bodyguards named Crabbe and Goyle. They're very menacing and will do anything for a cookie.), **curlybean **(thank you! Lol, tell me about it with the whole "Sirius is such a typical man, not being able to share his feelings". You're very, very right. Lol), **sami1010220, shadowarwen **(yup, it's really Callahan. And he only seemed like he was helping Harry. You'll find out a bit more about it next chapter), **the girl of the shadows **(don't worry, I update once a week. I too feel quite homicidal toward those that stop their story in the middle and then take eons to update or just never do again! So I don't do that.), **Harryandginnyforever **(Lol!), **Rubberduckie713 **(I've added you to my email alert list and never fear, I will not comment on the lovely email address lol), **Benevolence **(I know, I do enjoy torturing the kid, but only because I love him so much. He is definitely, as you said, the perfect little victim, because you just want to do stuff to him to give you more reason to coddle him afterward!), **Venus4280 **(lol, I know I'm sadistic. That's my job, really. For my Hermione defense thing, look at Lourdes review above. Alright, alright, we can kill Lucius, lol.), **Tiggerle **(wow, good job on the quick read! I hope you continue to enjoy!), **LuvaboyDanHesmyman** (lol, well I hope you enjoy the fics I sent you, and you'll just have to see about your questions for my fic!), **m, gizachick **(glad to take you by surprise!), **hpfanchrissy1502, SiriusWolf **(Thanks! I'm so glad you like!), **Jemma Blackwell **(I'll try to do the link thing in my yahoo email, but I'm a bit computer illiterate, so if all else fails, in the link section of my yahoo group, there's a link to my author's page.), **MissPanther **(aw, okay, for old times sakes I'll add in a little torture. Btw, I loved both of your entries and, once again, am sorry that "Illusion" had to be disqualified. I truly enjoyed it.), **Jessikat **(wow, you read Recnac in one sitting? You must have gone numb, lol.), **elmephant/therese **(lol, damn healersâor at least the Death Eater ones. Grrâ), **BlackHeartBroken, japanese-jew, slytherin forever, kneh13, mickeymoose, Stephanie **(I update once a week, usually around the weekends), **Mango, Fraggle-Rock-Chick, Velith **(lol, I'm glad you are suspicious of my OC's. You knew I wouldn't make all of them good.), **James Potter's Lily Flowe **(the story will probably be around 26-27 chapters? That's just an estimation of course, but it'll probably be around that much. It's coming to an end soon.), **Lourdes1 **(thanks!), **sven **(thank you so much! Mr. Weasley does feel remorse, he just hasn't outwardly showed it yet), **vire, FaeRhapsody **(lol, well I hope this chapter can ease the pain of school a bit.), **americanpie**


	24. A Reason to Fight

**Author's note: **Hey everyone! I'm moving to college tomorrow! I have sort of procrastinated on my packing and errand running, so now I'm completely swamped. Unfortunately, that means that if I want to get the chapter out today, I can't do review responses, and since I don't know when the next time I'll have a chance to upload this will be, I figured you all would want it now rather than waiting forever. **Semi-important: **I hope everyone checks out the writing contest on my yahoo group. The prize is an early chapter (Chapter 26 for this one) and I hope you all will try for it! Make sure to read the prompt, which is in Message #237 and stick to it, though it's pretty broad. The deadline is next Thursday (9/23) at Midnight (Pac. Standard time). Also, I'm not sure how this move and the start of college will affect the next few updates, so if the next update or two are a little late, please bear with me! Once I get settled in, I'll also try getting Flawed a bit more up to date on the yahoo group. Sorry for any inconvenience. So, on with the chapter and please review!!

.........

The Death Eaters soon began to emerge from their states of shock and Harry, ignoring the painful protests of his body, jumped into action. He crawled over to Lucius's body and quickly grabbed his own wand from the man's pocket. He looked back and saw some Death Eaters turning on Draco, who was oblivious as he stood there, staring at his father's body in shock.

Harry quickly stunned those Death Eaters and began hurling curses at others. He quickly grabbed his invisibility cloak and ran toward Draco, not even bothering to throw it over them as it would only slow them down. He grabbed Draco's wrist and pulled him along, sending curses over his shoulder as they once again ran from the room out the nearest door.

Harry prayed to anyone who was listening to help them get out of there alive as he pelted down a dark hall, Draco running along with him numbly, still in shock. Harry shot engorgement charms behind them at everything from spider webs to pebbles, hoping to slow their pursuers down. It was helping, but also meant Harry was looking behind him, rather than in front.

Suddenly, Draco knocked Harry to the side, slamming the two of them against a wall as the killing curse shot down the center of the aisle. It hit the closest Death Eater behind them.

Draco had obviously snapped out of it and grabbed Harry's wrist, pulling him forward at a bit of a crouch. Draco cast spells at the Death Eaters in front of them as Harry worked on those behind them. Thankfully, Draco pulled him down an intersecting hall and the two ran full speed as Draco led the way, pulling them down a zigzag of paths, trying to throw the Death Eaters off.

They passed a painting of a man wearing a cold, commanding sneer with a plaque saying "Ozymandias."

"I know where we are!" Draco exclaimed in inexplicable relief before turning them down the next hall. Harry could have cried in relief.

They slammed to a halt when they heard a voice around the corner ordering someone to guard the door.

Harry threw the invisibility cloak he still had in his arms over the two of them just in time for several Death Eaters to race down the hall intersecting theirs, moving to cover all the doors.

"Someone go back to the main room and get the crystal and map of this place so we can get a track going on Potter," somebody commanded. "We need to kill that little bastard now!"

As soon as they were passed, Draco led the way across the hall, under the invisibility cloak, into a large room. They closed the door and worked together to levitate a large desk in front of it, the room being a very old study that looked as if it hadn't been used in years. The two ran to the window and tried to yank it open, but the wood had swelled and it wouldn't budge.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though the closed door hadn't gone unnoticed, or someone had been able to do a tracking spell on Harry, because soon there was a Death Eater banging at the door, calling for backup. He apparently didn't want to fight the boys alone, especially now that they had wands.

Harry ran and grabbed a paperweight, throwing it with all his might through the glass. He grabbed a small rug and draped it over the bottom of the frame so they wouldn't get stabbed by the glass shards jutting out of the bottom.

"Go!" he yelled at Draco and the blonde immediately crawled through the small opening, his back getting several cuts on it from the broken glass from the top of the windowpane.

Harry followed after him, jumping slightly as he heard the door explode behind him. Draco grabbed his arms and pulled him through, and the two fell to the muddy grass before immediately scrambling to their feet and racing away from the house to get cover from the trees as spells were being shot from behind them and Death Eaters started pouring out of the house.

As they ran, Harry pointed his wand up at the sky and shot several colorful flares up into the sky. Draco figured out what he was doing and jutted his wand upwards. "Morsmordre!" he yelled, and the Dark Mark appeared huge in the sky. Now the Order would be able to find the Death Eater's main headquarter.

Harry pictured the Burrow in his mind as they ran and held onto Draco's wrist tightly.

"The Burrow!" Harry shouted, activating the Portkey Hermione had made out of his shoe. He quickly prayed they would end up some place they recognized and not in the middle of a tree or something. He prayed that it would work period.

Then he felt a familiar tug at his navel and thanked anyone who was listening.

Harry felt his feet hit the ground and his legs give out from under him as pain shot through his right ankle from landing on his foot awkwardly, bringing him to his hands and knees. Draco was lying next to him on his back, catching his breath.

Harry raised his tired head and looked around. They were on the side of the dirt road that would lead to the Burrow. They would have a long walk ahead of them, but at least he knew where they were. He sat back and gently wiped his hands on his pants to try to get the dirt out of the cuts and scrapes on his palms, including the deep slices from crawling on glass in the Nightmare Chamber. He felt a drop of water hit his hand. It was raining lightly. He looked down at his chest and tenderly ran his fingers over the gash there. It really didn't seem that deep, but it hadn't started closing up and was still bleeding slightly. He wasn't sure why it wasn't healing at all yet, but there was nothing he could do about it here.

He looked over at Draco. The blonde had sat up and was staring blankly into the distance.

"The Burrow's that way. I'd say we have a pretty big walk ahead of us," Harry quietly informed him. Draco numbly nodded but otherwise made no move. "Draco?" Harry asked gently.

"D-do you mind if we don't start back quite yet?" he asked quietly, not looking at Harry.

Harry stood up and winced as he put his weight on his right leg. He limped over to the blonde and sat down next to him.

"We can take as long as you need," Harry assured him, even though it was beginning to rain a bit harder.

"Thanks," Draco whispered.

There was a long silence.

"Draco, talk to me," Harry pleaded. Draco took a shuddering breath and hung his head.

"I'm a murderer. I killed my own father," he said shakily.

"You did it to save us. You had no other choice. Besides, he's not your father, Draco, not really. He was going to kill you. That's not a father," Harry said softly.

Draco shook his head.

"He raised me. Even if he hated me, I was still his son and I killed him! No matter how much I tried to change, I'm still evil!" he cried, choking back a sob.

"Do you think I'm evil for killing Voldemort?" Harry asked gently.

"No, but that's different. He was the Dark Lord. He was going to kill so many. You did it to save people."

"Can't you see they're exactly the same? Lucius Malfoy was the next Dark Lord!" Harry insisted.

Draco turned to him angrily. "You better not be comparing my father with the Dark Lord," he yelled.

Harry didn't let the boy's anger faze him, as he knew it was misplaced. He had to stop the blonde's guilt before it was too deeply rooted to fix.

"Well I am. He was nothing but a greedy git who betrayed his family."

"Shut your damn mouth!" Draco screamed.

"He thought he was so great, but he was nothing but a coward who would have killed his own son to save his neck. _He_ was the evil one."

"You bastard!" Draco yelled furiously. He turned to Harry and swung a fist at the Gryffindor's face as well as he could while sitting. Yet the blonde was too emotionally distraught to aim properly and Harry easily dodged the punch.

"That's why he can't be your father, Draco. Don't you see? You're nothing like him. You aren't Lucius Malfoy because he could never even dream of being the person you are. You're not evil; you're good. You're brave and you did what you had to do, even if you didn't want to."

Draco shook his head, trying desperately to fight back tears. "No, he was a great man. I looked up to him. He was the only person I could turn to for help. He's the only one who was ever concerned with things I had to say! And now, I'm all alone. I killed him!" he cried, shaking with the effort of holding back his tears. It was raining heavily now, but neither of them seemed to notice.

"Draco, listen to me, listen to yourself! You know he was only interested in you when it was in his favor to be. You could never turn to him for help with real things! Would he have given you advice if you fancied a girl? And what if she was Muggleborn? He would have killed you! Could you have told him when you were scared or sad or worried? Would he have ever been excited about something only because you were excited?" Harry asked wildly.

A warm tear slid down his cheek, blending in with the raindrops on his face, because though he was directing these inquiries at Draco, they could have easily been directed at himself about the Dursleys, and he knew what the answer would be. He took a deep breath and continued.

"But that's back with your old family. Now you have Professor Snape. He thinks of you as his own son. He loves you, even if he doesn't always know how to show it. He's there for you, really there. Not the kind of 'there' your father was where he just bought you off."

"Sev's going to hate me after he finds out what I did," Draco said shakily.

"No he's not. I swear to you that he won't."

"But if he does..."

"Then we'd have to stick another bed in my room, but that's not going to happen since Professor Snape is probably never going to let you leave his sight again," Harry said with a comforting smile.

"You'd really let me move in with you if I needed to?"

"Of course. That's what best friends are for," Harry said reassuringly. Draco looked at him in shock.

"I thought Weasley was your best friend."

"You can have more than one best friend, but you're definitely in an elite three for me," Harry said.

There was a long silence.

"Why did he have to hate me so much?" Draco asked tearfully.

"He was an idiot."

"But it still hurts," Draco said quietly.

"Yeah, I know," Harry said softly.

A tear slid out of the blonde's eye and he wiped it away in a near panic.

"Draco, it's okay. You can cry. There's nobody here but me," Harry said softly.

"Malfoys don't cry," he said firmly.

"You don't have to be a Malfoy anymore," Harry said quietly.

Draco looked up at him with a pained expression.

With a sudden sob, Draco hesitantly put his wet arms around Harry's neck and buried his face into the Gryffindor's shoulder as he began to cry for the first time in a very long time.

Harry slid his arms around Draco and rubbed his back comfortingly as he had seen the twins do to calm Ron after his nightmares. Draco gripped the back of Harry's now-soaked shirt as his body wracked with sobs, his tears mixing with the rain, his weeping occasionally muffled by the distant crash of thunder.

Finally, Draco was cried out. He sat back sniffling. He had Harry's blood on his shirt, but Harry didn't bother pointing it out. There was nothing they could do about it out here.

"I guess we should start heading back before our godfathers kill someone," he said, climbing to his feet.

Harry tried standing as well, but had a slightly more difficult time. Even the slightest pressure on his foot was met with flashes of pain.

Draco was quickly at his side, helping him to his feet. He pulled Harry's arm around his shoulder and steadied him.

"Come on gimpy," he said with a smirk. Harry glared at him.

"Oh shut it," he muttered. He tested putting weight on his hurt leg and grimaced, immediately shifting his weight back to Draco.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Draco asked as they began to walk, looking at Harry's blood-soaked shirt with a grimace.

"Well, I'm sure not staying here."

The sky seemed to light up as lightning flashed in the distant. A crash of thunder soon followed it.

"Of course it _had_ to start raining when we have to walk a thousand miles outdoors," Draco grumbled.

"Yeah, it's sort of fitting. But damn, it's freezing out here," said Harry, who was starting to shiver.

"Really? I'm not that cold," Draco mused.

As they continued to walk, Harry began leaning on Draco more and more.

"You know," Draco said, "I think you're getting heavier with each step."

"Sorry," Harry muttered. He shifted some of his weight back to his good leg and nearly fell.

"Okay, maybe you should keep leaning on me," Draco said, keeping Harry from falling and holding tighter to the arm around his shoulders.

Harry only nodded.

As they continued to walk through the rain, Harry's shivering kept getting more obvious.

"Jeez, Har, it's not that cold," Draco said, looking over at his friend. "Are you al..."

"Draco?" Harry interrupted. He sounded a bit frightened. "You remember when Hr. Callahan gave me that potion when we ran into him in the hallway? I don't think it was a healing potion."

Draco stopped walking and looked at Harry in fright. "Why, what's wrong?"

"I really don't feel good," he whimpered with a sigh.

"Oh shit. Um...okay, can you still walk?" he asked in a panicky voice. Harry nodded. "Okay, then let's try to just get to the Burrow. You can lean on me as much as you want."

Harry nodded and the two began walking in silence. Harry had to lean on Draco more and more for support and was having a more difficult time breathing.

"Dray, I can't go anymore," Harry finally said as even his good leg was nearly giving out on him each time he stepped on it. He was so dizzy and so tired. His whole body ached. He just wanted to go to sleep.

"Harry, you have to," Draco said, trying to keep Harry up, but the Gryffindor sunk to the ground shakily.

"I can't," Harry said quietly. Everything was spinning.

"Please, Harry. Don't do this to me," Draco pleaded. "You're gonna make it. You can't give up now."

Harry winced as he took in shaky breaths. It hurt to do so but he felt as if he wasn't getting enough oxygen. His head was swimming.

"Tell Sirius I'm sorry about all this," he muttered as he lied down.

"Harry, no!" Draco yelled tearfully. It was obvious, though, that Harry wasn't going to stay conscious for long. Draco looked around frantically, up and down the dirt road with nothing but some trees along the sides. He prayed that somehow someone would be there, but there was no one. "Alright, I'm going to go for help, okay?" he said to Harry. "Let's get you under that tree over there to try to keep you a little more dry. Put your arms around my neck. Come on, that's it."

Draco wrapped his arms under Harry's and hauled him to his feet. Harry did his best to limp over to the tree, but Draco had to practically carry him. He helped the raven-haired boy lie down next to the tree trunk. Harry was barely conscious as Draco took off the Death Eater robe he was wearing over his clothes and covered him with it to try to keep him warm, even though it was soaking wet.

"Just hold on, Harry. I'm going to be right back with help."

Harry barely nodded.

Draco got up and started running through the darkness down the dirt road. After a few minutes, he got a cramp in his side, but didn't let it slow him down. Finally, the Burrow came into sight and Draco nearly cried in relief. He put on an extra burst of speed as he sprinted across the grass toward the crooked house.

He nearly fell up the steps and burst through the door. He gasped for breath as his eyes darted around for anybody. The house seemed to be empty.

He fell to his knees with exhaustion and defeat and burst into tears.

"Draco!"

Draco looked up to see his godfather running toward him. The Potions master fell to his knees beside Draco and roughly pulled his soaked godson to his chest.

"Oh thank Merlin! Oh thank Merlin!" he cried, letting a few tears of relief drip out.

"Where's Harry?" Sirius asked desperately, running up to the pair. Ginny was right next to him.

Draco shakily pulled away from his godfather. "Down the road. Hr. Callahan gave him a potion," he said frantically.

"Hr. Callahan? Draco what are you talking about?" Snape asked.

"He's a Death Eater...he was there...he gave Harry a potion when we thought he was good...made Harry sick. You have to get to him! I'll show you," Draco said hysterically, trying to climb to his feet, but Snape pulled him back down.

"Draco, just tell us where to find him. You're not going back out there right now," he said firmly.

"Umm...down the road, on the left side if you walked from here. He's under a big tree near the edge of the road. It was a few minutes before you're able to see the Burrow. You've got to hurry!"

"You stay here with Draco, Professor. We'll find him," Ginny said, racing out after Sirius.

They got to the edge of the wards and Sirius grabbed onto Ginny's upper arms as he Apparated to the end of the stretch of the road, taking the younger redhead along with him to help him look. The two glanced back. They could barely see the Burrow, so Harry still had to be further along the road.

They jogged along the left side, squinting along the dark line of trees and calling Harry's name. It was difficult to see anything. Sirius Apparated to further down the road to look so they could cover ground more quickly.

Ginny saw a dark lump on the ground near one of the trees and hurried closer. Sure enough, it was Harry.

"Sirius! He's here!" she shouted as she sprinted over and knelt by his side. Harry was unconscious and was taking shallow breaths. She looked in horror at the blood covering the front of his shirt. She picked up one of his hands to get a closer look at the deep cuts on his hands.

"Harry? Harry, please wake up," Ginny pleaded, wiping the rain off Harry's face. Harry didn't make a move or a sound.

Sirius appeared behind her and knelt down on Harry's other side.

"Harry. Oh Merlin, Harry, just wake up. It's Sirius, come on," Sirius said frantically. He took in the deep bruises on Harry's neck in the shape of handprints and the one on his cheek, along with the several deep cuts scattered across his body. "Somebody was choking him," he said in shock. He quickly snapped out of it. "We need to get him some help. Let's get him back to the Burrow."

He put one arm under his knees and the other under his back, and lifted the soaked boy into his arms. Harry moaned softly at the movement and his eyebrows knitted together.

"Harry? Harry can you hear me?" Sirius yelled frantically, but Harry didn't respond.

"Ginny, wrap your arms around my stomach and hold on, I'm going to Apparate to the edge of the wards."

Ginny nodded and followed the instructions, closing her eyes tightly as they Disapparated and reappeared with a pop at the edge of the Burrow's wards. The two began running toward the Burrow, as Sirius cradled Harry tightly to his chest.

When they got inside, Draco, who was sitting on the couch holding a cup of tea, jumped to his feet. Snape strode over quickly, and quickly checked to see what was wrong with him.

"We need to get him to St. Mungo's," he said quickly.

"What's wrong with him?" Sirius asked tearfully.

"That _bastard_ Callahan gave him something that can't be fought off by his immune system. It's too weak. We need to get him to the hospital immediately," he said urgently. "Draco, come on, I want someone to look you over as well."

Draco wearily hurried to his godfather who put a comforting hand on his shoulder and led him to the fireplace after Sirius and Harry.

They flooed to the emergency room at St. Mungo's, where they were quickly met by several officials who helped Sirius get Harry onto a stretcher. Snape jogged along with them quickly, explaining to one Healer about Harry's medical condition. Sirius, Draco and Ginny jogged along on the other side as they both explained as much as they knew as to what had happened and what they knew about Hr. Callahan.

"Hr. Callahan, a Death Eater?" the healer they were speaking to asked incredulously. "Impossible."

"Hey! I saw him! He handed us right over to the rest of them and they almost killed us! He's been using those healer appointments to do weird tests on Harry! He gave Harry that potion and then led us back to the room with all the Death Eaters in it! He cast the Cruciatus curse on him!" Draco yelled angrily.

"If you say so," the healer sighed, sounding slightly overwhelmed.

They finally arrived at a room and the healers went in, allowing Snape to enter as well once he claimed to be Harry's physician. Before leaving, he made sure Sirius would stay with Draco and make sure someone looked over him. Though Sirius desperately wanted to be with his godson, he agreed so Snape, who knew more about Harry's medical condition, could help Harry.

Sirius used his nervous pent-up energy to get a healer to look over Draco, barking at the first nurse that walked by to fetch a healer who was familiar with the Cruciatus curse's effects. Ginny sat next to him, distracting herself from what was happening with Harry by making sure Draco had someone there while he was being looked over.

As a healer was checking over the shaky blonde right there in the waiting room, since Draco refused to leave until he found out what was wrong with his friend, a few healers raced out of Harry's room and began running down the halls without giving the three of them any indication of what was going on.

All they could do was wait.

.........

Meanwhile, upstairs, the Weasley parents and the twins sat in the room where Ron had just been examined and subjected to many potions and a few healing spells. The hall's main healer was in the room talking to them all.

"Ron will be just fine. He can go home tomorrow, but he must get plenty of rest and food. I'll give you some potions..."

He was interrupted as one of the healers from Harry's room burst in the door.

"Murphy, we need you over in emergency, right now," she gasped.

"Can't you borrow Callahan or Gomez?" he asked. "I'm a with a patient whose been with Death Eaters for days."

"Well, this boy's just gotten back from Death Eaters as well, and his friend insists Callahan is one of them. We need your expertise in immune systems because apparently this kid's is shot from having some Muggle illness," the woman explained urgently. "Hurry up now. We're not sure if this kid's going to make it!"

Ron shot straight up in bed. "Wait, Harry? Are you talking about Harry Potter?"

"That's confidential," the female healer snapped as she hurried from the room, Hr. Murphy apologizing quickly before running after her. Fred and George immediately followed them while the Weasley parents kept Ron from running with them.

"Mum, Dad, Hr. Callahan, that was..." Ron said frantically.

"We know, Ron. Harry's healer. Oh Merlin," Mr. Weasley said closing his eyes.

"Did you hear her? She said he might not make it! That means he's hurt really bad! He might be dying! You have to let me go there!" he shouted hysterically.

"Ron, honey, the healer wanted you to stay in bed," Mrs. Weasley protested.

"Mum, Dad, Harry put his life on the line to rescue me, and now he might die. I have to be there," Ron said firmly.

His parents exchanged a look.

"All right, Ron, but we're coming with you and you're not to run ahead of us," Mrs. Weasley said sternly, pulling off her cloak and wrapping it around her son as he weakly climbed out of bed.

"Somebody has to tell Hermione..." Ron started before the bushy haired girl pushed open the door, returning from telling Dumbledore what had happened.

"Ron, what are you doing out of bed?" she asked in concern.

"It's Harry. He's in the emergency ward and it sounds bad," Ron said, sounding frightened. Hermione's breath hitched and she closed her eyes momentarily.

"I'm going to run ahead. I need to find out what's happening. I'll meet you there," Hermione said, tearing off out of the room.

Ron and his parents began hurriedly making their way to the emergency ward.

.....

Fred and George followed the healers until they reached Harry's room. The two medi-wizards dashed through the doors while the twins caught sight of two familiar faces.

Draco was sitting in a chair against the wall. He had his arms wrapped around himself and a blank look on his face. Sirius and Ginny were pacing anxiously, the former occasionally kneeling in front of Draco and asking him how he was holding up or telling him it would all be okay, the latter being a reassurance to himself as well.

The twins walked up.

"So it's really Harry in there?" Fred asked miserably.

"What exactly is going on?" George asked anxiously.

Sirius quickly explained the situation, pausing only once to jump at a nurse passing by, asking her to please find out what was going on with his godson. The nurse gently refused, telling him she couldn't interrupt them like that, especially if it was an emergency case. She assured him that she was sure the healers would be out soon.

Fred and George sat down in slight shock on either side of Draco, who looked at them, slightly intimidated. He didn't want to deal with the twins right then.

"Hey, Malfoy," Fred said quietly.

"Do you mind if we call you Draco?" George asked.

Draco looked at them weakly. "Sure. I'd prefer it, actually," he said softly.

"We owe you some thanks, for helping save Ron," Fred said.

"I didn't go to save your brother," Draco said bitterly, once again staring into space. "I went to make sure Harry didn't get himself killed. And now he...I don't even know what's happening! He's my best friend," he admitted. "My only friend," he added quietly. "He's the only one that ever even gave me a chance."

Hermione dashed up and started talking to Ginny.

"Well, no matter the reason, you still helped to save him," said George.

"And we also owe you an apology, because you're right. We never did give you a chance," said Fred.

"We know it's sort of late..."

"But we want to give you a chance now."

Draco looked up and was about to say something sarcastic, to laugh in their faces and tell them that it was way too late, but for some reason, the sneering words didn't come out.

"Okay," he said tiredly.

Ron and his parents spotted the group and Ron raced toward them, his parents running after him.

"Where's Harry? What's wrong with him?" he asked urgently.

"We don't know," Sirius said in frustration. "The stupid healers haven't come out of there yet....What are _you_ doing here?" he spat angrily, spotting Mr. Weasley.

"Listen, Sirius, I'm sorry. I care about Harry's welfare just as much you do," the elder redhead said gently.

"Don't give me that shit!" Sirius yelled. "Harry only _thought_ you cared about him, but really, he wouldn't be in there right now if you hadn't been pushing him to go! You made that damn Portkey for him!"

"Sirius," Hermione piped up, "Harry would've gone whether Mr. Weasley made him a Portkey or not. He figured out how to get passed the wards and he would've gone no matter what. It was his decision to go, just as it was mine and Draco's decisions to go with him."

"Listen," Mrs. Weasley interrupted sternly, "we have much more important matters on our hands than running around trying to blame each other. It will not help the situation any, all right? So everyone sit down or leave."

Everyone followed orders and sat down in various chairs, Sirius and Mr. Weasley far away from each other. Mrs. Weasley could be a very intimidating woman.

A while later, the healer came out with a solemn expression on his face. Everyone stood up with terrified looks on their faces.

"Is Harry's guardian present?" he asked hopefully. Sirius stepped forward.

"I'm his godfather. What's going on? Is Harry all right? You've had him in there for nearly two hours and nobody's told us a damn thing!" he yelled shakily.

The healer looked at him sympathetically, a look that did nothing to ease anybody's minds.

"I apologize for that. We've had our best healers in there with him trying to identify the poison he was given. It appears to have been an original creation designed with Harry's weak immune system especially in mind. It seems that it is very likely that what Draco here has claimed is true. All of Hr. Callahan's records on Harry have disappeared, but we have reason to believe that the medicinal potions he has been giving Harry all summer have included small traces of things like blood thinners, which was why he bled so much tonight, and other small things that made this poison work so swiftly and effectively, and is making it difficult to fight against. It first shut down his immune system and then began to slowly shut down his respiratory system and others as well. We had many scares in the past few hours where we nearly lost him. It seems we have finally brought Harry to a stabilized condition, though we are unsure of its lasting stability."

"What does that mean?" Mrs. Weasley asked frantically. "Is he going to be okay? Is he awake?"

"What I mean is that Harry has slipped into a coma. If he makes it through the night, we feel it will be a temporary condition," the healer said grimly.

"_If_ he makes it through the night? That makes it sound as if he..." Hermione trailed off.

"We aren't sure whether he will survive until morning. Now it really depends on his will to live. He has to really want to in order for him to make it through this. However..." he trailed off sadly.

"However what?" George asked breathlessly.

"However, Harry appears to be giving up," the healer said regretfully. Everyone looked at him in horror.

"No. No," Mrs. Weasley gasped.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you that, but it's the unfortunate reality of the situation. This happens often with patients that have been through a lot within a recent period of time or maybe have been depressed recently and are perhaps confused about things," the healer said gently, as if trying to make them understand something without having to say it himself.

"Confused about things?!" Draco yelled jumping to his feet. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why don't you just talk to us in plain English? Confused as in _why_ to come back? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Yes, that's what I'm saying," the healer said regretfully.

"You mean Harry can't figure out a reason to live?" Ron asked shakily.

"I would suggest talking to him. He won't be able to hear you consciously, but he might be able to sense your presence, and though he won't be able to understand you, it couldn't hurt. Hearing familiar voices might be comforting to him. It might be a good time to say your goodbyes, just in case he doesn't pull through," the healer said as gently as possible before leaving.

Sirius sunk down into the waiting room chair shakily, eyes wide, staring blankly ahead.

"He's giving up," he whispered. "Because he doesn't think he's worth anything. Because I never told him he was worth anything. And now he doesn't know why to live."

Sirius was not the only one present who felt guilty about this. Mr. Weasley looked deeply ashamed, and everyone hung their heads a little. They had all seen Harry withdrawing into himself. They had all been very aware of what the incident with his uncle had done to him. But all their attempts to reach him had been too little too late. Most had relied on someone else to do the dirty work and, in the end, nobody had gotten through. Now Harry was paying the consequence.

Mrs. Weasley walked up to Sirius and looked at him intently.

"Well, don't you put it off any longer. Go in there and give him a reason to fight."

.......

Sorry guys, no review responses right now! I'm so sorry, but the only way I could get this chapter out today was to skip them and if I didn't get the chapter out today, it would have been a long time before I could. Please review, nonetheless!!


	25. Just Harry

**Author's Note: **Hey all! Sorry this chapter's out so late, but the internet connection here's really shaky. I've been checking religiously, waiting for it to go up, so here it is! Thank you all for being so patient. BTW, formatting on this is really weird and it's stopped accepting pretty much any scene breaks I try to do, so now we got this cool HPHPHP line break, just so you know what that means! To those confused about the portkey Draco and Harry used, it was Hermione's first attempt at making a portkey out of Harry's shoe. The relevance of Ron's wand wasn't because it was a portkey, but because it was a wand that Draco could use when his own had been taken from him. Hope that clears some stuff up! Also, thanks to all those who wished me good luck in college. So far, it's going really great. My roommates and I are getting along fantastically. Only issues are the internet connection, the little amounts of time I seem to be having, and the no hot water in the showers issue. Lol, otherwise, I'm having a blast! Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

HPHPHPHP

_Harry was sitting in his cupboard back at the Dursleys. It was so dark and Harry was afraid. He was reminded of times when he was little and the storms would scare him, but there was no one he could run to, nowhere to go to escape the darkness._

_He crept to the door and cracked it open. Behind it was a very large empty black space with a bunch of familiar people standing in the blackness. Aunt Petunia scowled at him, while Dudley laughed derisively. "Professor," Harry called weakly as he spied Professor Snape. The Potions master scowled at him._

"_Don't you get it yet, Potter? I hate you. Your presence is an annoyance to me. You were right. I should have let you die," he spat. Sirius walked up next to Snape and glared at Harry. _

"_You ruined my life, Harry. You're such a burden. I thought you were going to be like your father but you're just a huge disappointment. I wish I could send you back to your relatives, but for now, at least, I seem to be stuck with you and waste my days having you around. I might as well be back in Azkaban."_

"_I'm sorry, Sirius," Harry said desperately. "I didn't mean..."_

"_Of course you didn't. You just ruin lives," he sneered._

_Ron stepped out from nowhere and shook his head at Harry in disgust. "You are such a burden, Harry. I had to babysit you all last year when I could have been out being a typical teenager. I had to waste my time watching after you while you were puking. It was disgusting. You even threw up on me and got blood on me during your uncle's punishment. You couldn't even stand up to him, a Muggle. To think I used to respect you. We should have let him beat you to death."_

_Hermione stepped up next to Ron. "Harry, when are you going to realize you're getting in our way? Ron and I are trying to have a relationship and you're always intruding. You're a third wheel. We don't want you in the trio anymore, don't you get it? We don't want you anymore."_

_Mr. and Mrs. Weasley stepped up next and rolled their eyes at him. _

"_I can't believe you actually thought we cared about you, Harry," Mr. Weasley said._

"_You should have listened to your relatives. Nobody will ever care about you. We'll pretend but we could never love you," Mrs. Weasley said. "Hugging you makes my skin crawl."_

"_I'm sorry Harry, but we never meant for you to get the idea that we thought of you as part of the family. You jump to conclusions far too easily," Mr. Weasley said with a shrug before they both walked off into the darkness. _

_Dumbledore came ("You're only a weapon, Harry."), as did Ginny ("Are you kidding? Why would I want you?"). _

_Uncle Vernon glared menacingly at him and started toward the cupboard. Harry slammed the cupboard door shut and dissolved into tears on his dilapidated little cot, hugging himself for comfort. He never wanted to go back out there. _

_He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and looked into the corner of the cupboard. It had seemed to expand slightly to accommodate a rather large mirror. Harry got up and stood in front of it, realizing what it was, the Mirror of Erised. _

_His parents stood there grinning and waving at him. Harry gazed into it longingly. He sunk to the floor in front of it and watched his parents, wishing he were with them._

Snape had been left in the room alone with Harry. He had been there the entire time, watching in a sort of horror as Harry's life line kept going flat just to be barely brought back to a weak pulse. It all seemed unreal as the healers kept shouting out for his advice, for him to do things to help. He had always prided himself as being unlike the others in regards to Harry, always being very aware of the boy's mortality. But in that room, he realized that wasn't true. Sure, Harry had practically died the previous year, but one week later, Snape had brought him back to life. Somehow, this had just made him believe right along with everyone else that Harry was somehow immortal. But seeing him lying there, looking so incredibly vulnerable as the healers did everything they could think of just to keep him alive for another minute while they tried to come up with a plan to save him, his beliefs were shattered.

He had always counted on the fact that he could be mean and cold to Harry today, but that the Gryffindor would see in time that Snape didn't really mean it. And now it was very probable that there would not be a tomorrow, and when the healers concluded that Harry would make it if he only had the will to live, but that he was giving up, Snape felt shame like he had never thought possible. He had known Harry was falling, but had let him fall, not wanting to push his pride away enough to catch him. He had told himself that someone else would catch the boy, or that if all else failed, Snape could catch him later. Now later had been erased, and if someone didn't catch Harry now, he'd finally hit the ground.

As the healers left to go talk to those waiting in the hall, Snape sat down next to Harry and took his hand in his.

"Harry, it's Professor Snape. It's Sev. I should have invited you to call me that so long ago. I've been a coward. Even after you went out on a limb and invited me to use your first name, I couldn't do the same in return, even when I let Draco and Anna call me it. You risked trying to have a casual relationship with me but I kept getting afraid and pushing it back into student-teacher mode. It's like that conversation we had a while ago, about the flawed perfection. You said that sometimes people are afraid to take risks in letting people in. You said that it could destroy a person and that they could get lost in it until someone pulled them out of it. Well, I used to be there, and you helped pull me out, and yet, I ignored that. I didn't want to acknowledge that it was _you_ who had helped me since I hated your father so much. It was a great blow to my pride, but you saved me. You came along and dragged me out of my little dark cave of self-pity and forced me to look around at my life and see that I didn't have to be drowning all alone in the flaws of life. You made me see that just because bad things had happened to me in life, it didn't mean everything was lost. I didn't believe you at the time, but I do now.

"Now you're in the same place I was and I know that I've been a big part of the reason that you're there. I have never been more sorry about anything in my entire life. I'm here with a whole lot of other people who want to pull you back out, just as you did for me. I am finally acknowledging that there's a vast difference between you and your father, and I uh, I care for you very much. If your godfather was out of the picture, I'd...I'd like nothing better than to adopt you as my son, right along with Draco. I don't know why I've been so harsh with you except that I was still in the process of coming out of the dark place I've been in for so long, and I was afraid. I was afraid of you because you brought me out. I'm not afraid anymore, though. I promise you, that if you come back, things will change. I will never call you by your surname to be cruel again. I won't make you treat me as nothing more than your professor. And I'll always be there for you to talk to if you want. And this time, if I say we're going to talk about something, we will, whether you like it or not. No more leaving it up to other people. Come back, Harry, and I promise you things will be better."

_As Harry sat in his dark cupboard, he looked up to see Snape sitting on his cot. Harry blinked at him in surprise but remained sitting on the floor facing the mirror. _

"_Harry," the man said sadly, "you have to come back."_

"_Come back where?" Harry asked tiredly._

"_Out there," he said, pointing toward the door. _

_Harry shook his head. "I don't like it out there. I'd rather stay here," he said looking back at his parents._

"_You can't stay, Harry. You're going to have to choose soon. Come back, Harry, and I promise you things will be better."_

_Harry looked up to ask what he meant and if he was being honest, but Snape had disappeared again. _

_Harry brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He rested his chin on his knee and went back to watching the mirror. _

Sirius entered Harry's room. Snape looked up from his seat near Harry's bedside and nodded at Sirius in acknowledgment. He rose from his chair and gave Harry's hand one last squeeze before setting it down gently. No words were passed between the two as Snape left, closing the door quietly behind him.

Sirius stood near the doorway momentarily and looked at his godson. Harry was looking very peaceful lying there, as if he were just sleeping. Sirius was violently reminded of the period of time when Harry had been dead; how the world had seemed to end without Harry there.

He made his way to the chair at Harry's bedside and gently sat down, never tearing his eyes off the raven-haired boy. Harry's hair was messy as usual, flopping strategically over his scar as if hiding a terrible blemish. Sirius was reminded of how Harry compulsively flattened his fringe over his forehead every time he was in public.

Sirius gently brushed the raven locks away to reveal the lightning-bolt shaped scar. He swallowed sharply and began to speak.

"You're always so embarrassed by your scar, Harry. You shouldn't be. You've earned the fame it gives you. You should be proud of all you've done. I know I am," Sirius said quietly, taking a calming breath.

"There's so much to say and I can't even think of where to begin. I've been such a let down as a godfather to you, Harry, but you don't even seem to notice it. You're like that, you know. You look so hard for the good in people that you miss their faults. But with yourself, it's just the opposite. I wish you could see in yourself what everyone else sees in you, Harry. Maybe then, you'd fight a little harder to come back to us.

"I've missed you these past few weeks. I know if you were awake right now, you'd look at me like I was crazy, but it's true. We've been living under the same roof, but ever since that thing with your uncle, you've been different. You smile but your eyes are so sad, and I know something's been killing you inside. But I did nothing about it. I kept thinking it would go away and I didn't want to try to fix it because the idea of there even _being_ a problem was so frightening to me. I wanted you to think of me as a cool godfather, so I avoided talking to you about anything serious, or hugging you, or even showing that I care. Really, I didn't do any of the actual parenting stuff. And you know what? Right now, I don't feel like a cool godfather. Right now you're lying here looking so much like you did when you were dead and you're giving up on life because you don't feel loved, because I never bothered to let you know how much you mean to me and I'm left wondering what on earth I was thinking.

"You know, Harry, I was planning on giving you this long, in depth talk to start fixing things, but then you got sick and then Ron was taken and I never had the chance. And now I might lose you because you've never heard what I wanted to say. I really wanted to give you this talk when you were awake and could be part of it, but I guess we'll have to do the first run now, and I just have to pray that you'll hear me somehow."

Sirius shakily took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and straightened the crinkles from it. It was a list he had made of things he wanted to talk to Harry about. He hadn't wanted to forget anything. Sirius looked up at Harry's unconscious form with a nervous smile.

"If you were awake right now you'd think I was such a prat. I have a list here to make sure I remember to say all I want to say, even though I'm not sure if I'll be able to cover all of it now without you awake. I was never good at sentimental talks or even being serious for a long period of time. I'm a little bit rusty on all this human interaction stuff. I guess eleven years in an isolated prison cell and a bad relationship with my parents took its toll. First, I know you overheard me saying it would be easier to go back to being a free bachelor. You see, to me, it's almost like I've been thrown into a time machine. I was twenty-one when I was put in Azkaban and time just didn't run the way it's supposed to. Only once I met you did I start truly regaining my sanity. Now I'm thirty-six and I have you, and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing. Sure, it would be easier to be back to my swinging bachelor days, but I would never _want_ to go back. I love having you stay with me. I love trying to do this responsible godfather thing. I love all the difficulties that go along with it. It makes me feel like a real parent. For the first time in a long time, I have some purpose to my life. _You're_ my purpose, Harry. You make me jealous of James, because I wish I could claim you as my own creation. You were the best thing that James ever did.

"Speaking of James, I know I've been...um...comparing you a lot to your father lately. I never meant to give you the impression that I was disappointed in you for not being more like him, but I guess I did. I swear to you Harry," Sirius's voice caught in his throat with a burning sensation. A tear rolled down his cheek. "I never wanted you to be more like James."

Sirius took Harry's limp hand and held it to his cheek. "James was my friend, the greatest one I ever had, but you're my godson and I love you in a way I never loved James. You don't know it, but you make me so proud, Harry, and not just because you're always saving the day. It's everything about you: how you try to learn from bad experiences, how you can't stand seeing anyone else suffer, how you somehow seem to remain innocent even after experiencing so much evil in the world, how you always seem to be able to figure out how to reach whatever person you're communicating with. The list could go on forever.

"I don't know what's going on in your head right now, Harry, but don't leave me. I know it might seem peaceful and better on the other side, but it's not your time to go there. There are too many people here who need you, Harry. _I _need you. I need to teach you how to fly my motorcycle and you need to teach me how to play that Muggle card game you were telling me about. The one about the fish? You need to be here to make me laugh like I haven't been able to for so many years in Azkaban. I love you, Harry. You're my son, even if I'm not your biological parent. I never wanted to take James's place, but if you're trying to decide whether to go to him or come back to me, right now, I beg you, Harry, pick me. Come back to me. You can't leave me now, Harry. You just can't. This isn't meant to be an end, it's supposed to be the beginning."

_Harry was surprised to see Sirius sitting on his cot where Snape had just been. _

"_Sirius, I'm sorry," Harry said tearfully. "I'm so sorry." But Sirius didn't seem to hear him._

"_Harry, you can't leave me. You have to come back out there," he said, pointing to the door. _

"_Sirius, I can't," Harry said, looking at the door in fright. "It's safer here. Look, my parents," he said, pointing at the mirror. _

"_Pick me," Sirius said._

"_What? I don't understand," Harry said._

"_Choose me instead of James. I love you, Harry. You're my son."_

_Harry blinked at him in confusion. "Who are you?"_

"_I'm Sirius. I'm your godfather."_

"_Sirius doesn't love me. And he doesn't want me, he wants my dad," Harry said sadly._

"_It's me, Harry. I promise," Sirius said with pleading eyes._

"_You always promise things that aren't true, though. How do I know it's really you? What if you change again and don't want me anymore?" Harry asked desperately._

"_Come back. You have to take the risk, Harry," he said, getting up and heading toward the door. "I'll be out there."_

"_Sirius, wait! Just stay here with me!" Harry cried, jumping to his feet, but Sirius was already gone. Harry cautiously opened the door and stared out into the blackness. He could vaguely see the people he knew all glaring at him. "Sirius?" he called into the black. "Sirius, please, I don't know what to do!"_

_Suddenly, Uncle Vernon emerged from the dark, looking furious and Harry slammed the door in fright as the man began to yell about what a freak Harry was. _

_Harry sunk back to the floor and curled back into his ball, looking into the mirror to help him forget his fears. _

"Umm...I was wondering if I could talk to Harry," Ginny said tearfully. "I have some things I need to say."

Sirius reluctantly nodded. He kissed Harry's hand before gently placing it back down on the bed. He left the room as Ginny took his seat. She sat in silence for a few moments, just looking at Harry. She took his hand in hers and gently rubbed her thumb on the top of his hand as tears dripped silently down her cheeks.

"Hey Harry, it's me, Ginny," she said with difficulty. "I have to make this quick since everyone else wants a chance to talk to you as well. Remember when I was a first year how I was so scared to be around you because of my humongous crush on you? I sent you that stupid singing valentine that embarrassed the hell out of both of us. Just a few months ago we were sitting on the Gryffindor common room couch talking about how silly I was, but you know what? I think, in a way, it was back then that I had the right idea. You see, just because I can act human around you now, doesn't mean you don't still have the same effect on me. Yet, I stupidly started to hide how much I adore you when I should have been making sure you knew. Even right now, with you lying here looking like hell, I think you're gorgeous. I always have. I think it's your eyes, mainly, that have got me hooked, and Harry, I can't go without seeing them ever again. I can't go without hearing your voice or your laugh. I can't go without your wonderful smile. I can't let you leave without telling you all my secrets, and I can't let you leave before you let me know some of yours. Because when I'm a crazy old bat, I want you to be there with me to listen to the stories of all my crazy jobs, even though you will have heard them all already a thousand times. I want you there when the stories are being made.

"And you can't let our first kiss be our last. I couldn't stand that. I swear to you, if you come back, you'll always have a safe bet for the future because I'll never feel the same way about anyone else, whether you choose to be with me or not." She stood up, leaned over and brushed her lips against his forehead. "I love you like you wouldn't believe," she whispered in his ear. She brushed away her tears and left the room.

Harry looked over at Ginny with wide eyes. 

"_Ginny?" he asked in surprise. She smiled at him and shook her head slightly._

"_I love you like you couldn't believe," she said softly._

_Harry's eyes widened before he looked down at the floorboards. "Ginny, you don't want me. I'm such a mess."_

_Ginny got up and kissed him on the forehead, but it just felt like a warm breeze._

"_I don't want to give up my future with you," she whispered before leaving. _

"_You deserve better," he whispered as the door shut behind her._

Remus raced down the hall of the hospital, coming up to the group sitting around in chairs, looking very dazed and upset. Sirius looked like he didn't realize the world was still spinning around him.

He had been trying to track everyone down to make sure the kids were all okay, and once he found they weren't at any of the houses, he knew they must have gone to St. Mungo's. After all, Ron had been tortured for three days and he'd heard that Harry and Draco might have their own sets of injuries as well. He hadn't been prepared for the nurse informing him that Harry could be found in intensive care. He had raced off when she wouldn't give him any more information, praying that Sirius had just overreacted and forced the hospital to allow him to stay in that wing.

"What's wrong with Harry?" he asked desperately. "Why is he in intensive care?"

He waited for less than a second before pushing open the door into the hospital room. His heart plummeted.

The Stensons were sitting around his bed looking distraught. Kota was talking quietly to Harry, who was unmoving and looking like death.

"What's wrong with him?" Remus asked breathlessly.

"He's in a coma. They're not sure if he'll make it through the night," Mr. Stenson informed him in a choked voice. "They said we could try talking to him. They said it might be a good idea to say goodbye."

Remus momentarily stopped breathing. "What?"

Mr. Stenson took him aside and spoke quietly. "The doctor said that Harry's giving up on pulling through this. He's been through so much lately, he doesn't want to live anymore," he said, looking blankly at the floor.

"We're just finishing up and you can talk to him," Mrs. Stenson said quietly.

Kota sniffed and kissed Harry on the forehead.

"Come on, Harry, you've got to pull through this, okay? We need you so much. And you know I like happy endings. I need them. You can't...you can't give up, all right? We love you too much," she said in a teary voice. "I can't lose you again."

"Come on, Kota," her father said softly, giving Harry's hand a squeeze before putting it down. "Let's give Remus some time with him."

Kota nodded reluctantly and let Remus take her spot as the three Muggles went out into the hall.

Remus sank down into the chair beside Harry's bed and looked at the boy in shock. He brushed back a lock of Harry's hair, which sprung back into his face. That was the thing about Harry's hair, you could smooth it back as much as you wanted and it would eventually fall back into his face, even if he didn't move.

"Oh gods, Harry, you can't do this to me," Remus said in a choked voice, taking Harry's hand and covering it with both of his own. "Werewolves aren't allowed to be parents, did you know that? That's why I never came to visit you at the Dursleys, because I knew I wouldn't be able to bear not being able to take you home with me. You're the closest thing I'll ever have to a son and you can't leave me now. Being a werewolf is hard, but I've never hated it as much as I did when I met you and saw what a great kid you were. I wanted more than anything to just take you home with me, but I couldn't. I have to admit that I'm jealous of Sirius more than either of you could ever know because he's your godfather and I'm not. I hate to admit this to anyone, but sometimes I come back from visiting you and Sirius at the Lighthouse and I just feel so bitter because I can't ever have the same relationship with you that Sirius does when I knew you first. And I know that I want that so much that I have to watch myself so I don't unintentionally try to steal you away from Sirius, especially when I see him messing up. I just want you to know that if I ever have seemed to have distanced myself from you, it's because I'm trying to save myself from the pain of being around you, knowing that I could have had the relationship with you that Sirius does.

"I'm not saying goodbye because I refuse to resign myself to you giving up. You can't give up. When I was teaching you, you never gave up, even if it was nearly impossible, you wouldn't give up. You don't give up and I refuse to believe you'd give up now," Remus said firmly, looking down at Harry's peaceful expression. "You can't give up because even if I could never have you as a son, that's what you'll always be to me."

A few tears dripped down Remus's face and he held Harry's hand to his cheek

_Suddenly Remus appeared on Harry's cot and Harry's heart clenched when he realized the man was crying. _

"_Remy? What's wrong?" Harry asked, sitting next to his ex-Defense professor. _

"_I won't say goodbye," Remus choked out tearfully. _

_Harry was a bit confused but nodded sympathetically, nonetheless._

"_Are you going to stay with me for awhile?" Harry asked hopefully. Remus looked up at him._

"_I want what Sirius has," he said longingly._

"_What's that?" Harry asked, wondering what Sirius had that Remus would be jealous of. _

"_You," he said simply. _

_Harry blinked at him, speechless. _

_Remus buried his head in his hands and started to cry, but even though he was crying into his own hands, Harry looked down in confusion at the teardrops splashing onto his right hand, as if it had been the one Remus had been crying onto. _

"Hey, Harry," Ron said quietly, sitting beside his best friend and taking his hand. Harry looked too still and pale for Ron's comfort.

Ron carefully turned over the hand he was holding and looked at the scar on his wrist from the wire that had dug into it and nearly killed him. The scar made him remember the night Harry's uncle had attacked him and was too painful to look at anymore. Ron placed two fingers on Harry's wrist, finding the pulse. He shut his eyes tightly in relief and lowered Harry's hand back to the bed.

"Harry, how can you just be giving up?" Ron choked out tearfully. "I don't know what happened. This summer started out so perfectly. We were all so determined to make sure you knew how much you meant to us so we would never have to lose you again because you didn't think we cared. But then nobody ever made sure you knew, even when it was so obvious that you were doubting it, even after we knew your stupid uncle made you doubt it. We're all such idiots, Harry, I don't know how you can stand us. We were given a second chance and we blew it. It seems almost wrong to ask for a third. Of course, that's not going to stop me. We'll get it right, this time. I promise."

_Harry was sitting in his cupboard, gazing longingly at his parents, when something changed. His mother, instead of merely standing there and waving, beckoned him forward with a smile. Harry stood, his gaze transfixed on the image, and walked toward the mirror. He put his hand up to the glass to find that it was no longer solid, but a liquid substance._

_He looked back at the cupboard door. The world would be better off without him. He turned back to the mirror and stepped toward it. There was no reason to go back._

Suddenly, there was a long beep sound in Harry's hospital room. Ron looked up in alarm, not knowing what that meant. Several healers burst into the room looking frantic.

The healers surrounded Harry and began checking him over.

"We're losing him," one said urgently.

Ice-cold panic poured over Ron. He grabbed Harry's hand into his own.

"Harry, no! Don't go! No Harry, please! You can't leave me, damnit! You can't do this to me again! Harry, please! You have to live! You have to come back!" Ron screamed, tears streaming down his face.

_Harry whipped around as he heard someone scream behind him. Standing there, was Ron, crying._

"_Harry, no! Don't go! Please! You have to come back!" he cried._

"_Ron?" Harry asked, scared to see his friend so upset. He took a step away from the mirror. "Look, Ron. My parents," he said, pointing at the mirror, excitedly. "They want me. They want to be with me. They don't mind if I'm around!"_

"_Don't," Ron said frantically, shaking his head. "Come back."_

"_Ron, nobody back there wants me," Harry said tearfully. "I don't want to be alone anymore."_

"Get him out of here," one of the healers ordered. Two healers walked over to Ron. One laid a hand on his shoulder, but Ron shrugged it off violently. The two healers roughly pulled Ron from Harry and began dragging him toward the door.

_Suddenly Ron disappeared from the cupboard and Harry let out a sob, hugging himself tightly. He quickly turned toward his parents and went to the mirror._

Ron violently fought back, kicking and screaming.

"No! Let go of me! Let me talk to him! He doesn't want to be alone!" he screamed. He didn't know where that last statement came from, but somehow just knew it was true.

"Wait!" another healer yelled. "He was doing better and now he's slipping again. Oh shit, get his friend back here, NOW!"

The healers immediately let go of Ron, who raced back to Harry's side, grabbing his hand desperately.

"Harry, I need you! I can't do this without you! And not only me, a lot of people need you! Hermione needs you to keep her sane. Sirius loves you! You're his family and you can't leave him! He's out there freaking out right now. I can hear him screaming out in the hallway because they won't let him in, but he really wants to be here with you. And Snape, you've made Snape actually care about something! He cares about _you_! You can't leave him now or he'll go back to being miserable. And Malfoy, Harry, Malfoy. You're his only friend. You're better than the rest of us; you gave him a chance even after everything he did to you. Without you, he'll have no one. He'll have no friends and be all alone. You need to be here for him, because he needs you for support to be able to be able to face going back to school and seeing all his old friends. You need to be here to stick up for him! You have to be here for Ginny, because she loves you and you have to be here for the twins because they think of you as their little brother, right along with me. But Harry, you have to be here for me! You said you'd be there for me, you bloody promised! I swear, I'll be there for you too, if you just come back!" he said through his sobs.

"Hey sonny," one of the healers said as they monitored Harry's vitals, "keep it up. Whatever you're saying is helping. Keep going."

Ron determinedly wiped the tears from his cheeks. "Harry, come back. If you don't, think of all the things you'd be missing. There's Quidditch. There's Advanced Potions, which isn't all that exciting, but you helped me get in it and you need to help me through it and you have to see the Slytherin's faces when Snape's nice to you. And you have to be there to shock everyone with your friendship with Malfoy. And even though you were teasing that day when I found Eloise's plan for your future, Hermione and I will probably end up getting married and having a bunch of kids, and of course, you'll be one of their many uncles, whether you end up with Ginny or not. But you'll be their favorite because you'll live right next to me and be over all the time because I won't stand you not visiting daily. Harry, please, I can't do it without you. I _need_ you. You're my best friend and I need you. So don't you dare leave me because I can't do it on my own, and I swear you won't have to do it alone anymore either. You'll never have to feel alone again, even if I have to move in with you and spend every night on the mattress next to your bed, okay? You won't be alone anymore, I swear to you."

_Harry had stepped almost all the way through the mirror when Ron was suddenly screaming behind him again, even more desperately than before._

"_Harry! Please, I need you! Don't leave me!" he screamed hysterically. _

_Harry looked longingly toward his parents who were waiting for him with gentle smiles on their faces. He looked back at Ron through the liquid mirror. _

"_Ron, you don't need me, I make your life horrible," Harry explained sadly. _

"_I need you! You promised you'd be there for me!" the redhead cried desperately. "You're my best friend and I can't do it without you. You have to be there for me and all of us who need you."_

_Harry was torn. He didn't want to go back to a world of pain and doubts and loneliness. He didn't feel like he belonged there._

"_You won't be alone anymore, I swear to you," Ron said determinedly. His eyes shone with sincerity._

_Harry wanted time to think about this all. The whole idea of going back seemed too risky when on this side of the mirror, his parents were there and safe and ready to accept him, to love him. He was feeling a vague pull to go toward his parents._

_Suddenly, Harry realized that the edges of the mirror were becoming solid and working its way toward the middle. He had to make a choice. _

_He turned toward his parents and prayed he was making the right decision._

_With one last look at his mother and father, Harry stepped back through the mirror, back into the cupboard. _

_He turned back toward the mirror and saw that it had solidified and now was cracked. He couldn't go back through it, at least not now._

"_Thank you, Harry," Ron said sincerely. "Let's go." Ron started toward the door._

"_No, I can't. I don't want to go out there," Harry said tearfully. "Can't you just stay here?"_

"_I can't forever, Harry. Neither can you. But when you come back, we'll be waiting there for you."_

"_Are you going to leave me alone again?" Harry asked tearfully._

_Ron wordlessly sat down on Harry's cot. Harry slowly sat down next to him. The two sat there in silence for a long time, as Harry looked at the broken mirror, wondering if he had made the right choice._

"He's stabilized," one of the healers announced. Everyone breathed with relief as Ron looked up at them hopefully, tears still trickling down his face.

One of the healers patted his back.

"You saved him, kid. He's lucky to have a friend like you," the healer said with a warm smile.

"Is he going to be alright?" Ron asked tearfully.

"Well, everything's looking good. Now we'll just have to wait until he's ready to come out of his coma, but I think that was the last close call of the night," the healer said reassuringly.

"He can't be alone right now, okay?" Ron said firmly, wiping at his tears. "Someone he knows needs to be with him at all times, alright?"

"Okay," the healer said with a nod.

The healers filed out of the room and Ron just held Harry's hand tightly.

HPHPHPHP 

Meanwhile, the hall was filled with frantic shouting and crying as nurses attempted to calm the situation. Minutes earlier, several healers had raced into Harry's room screaming instructions at each other. One had said Harry was "crashing" and though those in the hall weren't familiar with emergency room lingo, they all knew what it meant, especially when they heard Ron's desperate screaming and sobbing from inside.

Immediately Sirius and Snape rushed toward the door, only to be thrown back by spells cast by two nurses trying to explain to them that they couldn't go in. They tried to explain they were Harry's godfather and physician, but the nurses still made them stay outside, claiming they'd be a distraction to those trying to save him.

Draco and Hermione tried to get in as well, shrieking that they were his best friends and that they hadn't even gotten to talk with Harry yet and that they wouldn't let Harry give up. Hermione even bit one of the arms of someone trying to restrain her, but still was unable to get through the door.

Ginny was carried away from the door screaming by two orderlies, using a variety of curse words her parents never dreamed she knew.

The twins were also attempting to break in, shouting that they were Harry's brothers. The nurses looked at the two with raised eyebrows so Fred and George insisted that they were his adoptive brothers and that the similarities between them and some of the others was purely coincidental; they'd never seen those Weasley people before in their lives.

Mrs. Weasley had gotten the farthest toward the door and it had taken no less than six orderlies to drag her away.

The Granger parents were watching in a stunned and sympathetic fashion, doing the best they could to calm people. Mr. Weasley was sitting in a chair sobbing into his hands.

Having been informed by owl of what had happened by Ginny, who had believed that Harry needed as many friends there as possible, Neville, Eloise, and the Stensons chose that time to arrive. It didn't take them long to find out what was happening and all rushed the door themselves.

It was still a crisis the hospital talked about years later, taking all the staff that could be spared to stop the situation before duels broke out, though several orderlies had ended up multi-colored by the end of it.

Finally, they had administered calming potions to all those who were a threat and as a precaution, stuck them to the waiting hall chairs with some simple charms. Their wands were all confiscated and would be given back to them only when they were leaving the hospital. A few orderlies stayed to interrogate Fred and George on what would get their skin to stop flashing neon-orange, but the furious, panicked twins refused to tell them until they brought information about Harry.

The healers finally emerged, informing the group that though they had just nearly lost him, Harry was now stabilized. Of course there was the grim news that Harry was still in his coma and they couldn't tell if he'd come out of it. They just needed to be given the support he so clearly needed right now and they'd have to see what happened from there.

HPHPHPHP 

Mr. Weasley slipped into Harry's room. It had been hard to get a moment where Harry was unguarded, but the healers had shoved everyone out of the room and had insisted they either go home or at least go to the tearoom for a bit so they could check over Harry. Arthur had made an excuse to get away, and nobody stopped him as the tension between he and Sirius was unbearable. He went straight down to Harry's hospital room and waited until the healers left. He hadn't felt like he deserved to demand time alone with Harry so he waited until he didn't need to ask anyone else for it.

His breath caught in his throat as he saw Harry lying on the hospital bed, with monitoring spells making beeping sounds and Harry looking so pale and still. Some might say he looked like he was sleeping, but Harry had stayed at the Burrow enough for Mr. Weasley to know see how unnatural it was. Harry never slept on his back. He always curled up on his side, almost into a protective ball, looking peaceful but alone, as if he was trying to protect himself from the harsh world while in such a vulnerable state. The only time he relaxed from that position was when someone was near him while he slept, and both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had, on occasion, secretly snuck up to Ron's room to sit next to Harry while he slept, just to see the tension in his features truly disappear.

But Harry had never slept on his back.

Arthur sat in the chair next to Harry and sadly took the boy's hand.

"Hey Harry," he said quietly. "It's Mr. Weasley. Pretty much everyone wants to kill me right now for encouraging you to go on that rescue mission for Ron. They think I don't care about you. I want you to know that I do...care about you, that is. I don't know how to explain what I did and I don't even know how I feel about it. But I do know how I'm feeling now. I'm so scared that you might not come out of this. I don't care much what other people think about me right now, I just care about the fact that you're here in this hospital, that you so nearly died and now are just clinging on and aren't even sure why you should hold on. I feel guilty, of course, knowing that I had a hand in this uncertainty and the whole thing itself. I can't tell you how I felt when I realized you and the Malfoy boy were still back there and that you had been caught by Death Eaters. I was just stunned. I don't think it even registered. I just took Ron to the hospital and I knew, I just _knew_, that you'd show up as soon as I left, perfectly fine, with some heroic tale about how you escaped, leading the Malfoy boy to safety. That's just how you are. You always come out the victor and you always make sure everyone gets back safe. That's why I just _knew_ that with you in charge of this rescue mission, everyone would get back okay, because that's how it always goes. That's how it's _supposed_ to go. And the fact that it didn't go like that just didn't register until...maybe even until I saw you here just a few moments ago.

"I think I fell into the trap, the Boy Who Lived trap. I know you're just a teenager like my kids and like every other kid your age, and I never thought I'd be one of those people who just blindly put their faith in you...no, that's not what I meant to say, because I've always had faith in you and I still have faith in you; none of it was blind...I meant to say those people who put burdens on your shoulders and stupidly believe that you're some rock that can just hold it all and never get hurt. Those people who think you're immortal. But you know, that's what I did, wasn't it? I didn't protect you like I would have of any other kid. I wouldn't even have let Hermione or Draco go if you hadn't gone along. I told you it was your job to get him back, and whether you would have or not without my encouragement isn't the point. The point is that I let you down and momentarily forgot that you were Harry, not the Boy Who Lived. I let you down where it mattered, in the only area that ever really mattered to you. And for that, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself," he said, taking a moment to shut his eyes and stop talking in order to fight back his emotions.

"I guess I just wanted you to know that I do care about you, despite what you or anyone else might think. You don't have to forgive me or even talk to me ever again, but you have to come back, Harry. You have to wake up and go back to playing Quidditch in our backyard and complimenting Molly's cooking and sleeping in your curled up ball on your side. And I will never make the mistake of treating you like anything other than who you really are ever again." He paused and looked at the boy in front of him. "I think your friends have it down, but some of us adults really need to start seeing you as Harry. Just Harry."

HPHPHPHPHPHP 

**ParanoiaIn2005:** Ah, I had a late chapter so you are allowed a late review. Well, you know those Death Eaters and their power trips. Hahaha, you're right, Harry and glass don't mix well. Lol, I know, I do torture Harry incessantly, but he does seem to have rotten luck, so there you go. Plus I'm sadistic, I guess, so that might explain things a bit. Thank you! I'm so glad you liked that scene between the two boys on the side of the road. Yes, Harry is definitely a tortured soul, that's exactly what JKR had in mind for him, I'd say. I'm just playing off that, lol. Yeah, Draco wasn't thinking too clearly putting Harry under a tree, but it's not like in his high-class household, he'd ever be out in storms and therefore wouldn't know these types of things. He'd probably put Harry next to a lightning rod and be clueless. I know, isn't Draco such a cutie? (except for the whole nearly getting Harry struck by lightning deal, lol). I'm sooo thrilled you liked the part with Sev hugging Draco so much! I rather liked it too, but I think you're the only person to mention it, so for that I thank you!! Yeah, I've always been very fond of the twins, they're just so cool!! Lol. Er...I didn't mean to depress my readers...just tug at their heartstrings a little...just a little tug, that's all, really!! Lol. Well, I did review responses this time just for you!! I hope you enjoy!!

**Wiccan PussyKat: **Well, there are only a few chapters left, but I'm not sure if they'll be weekly or bi-weekly as they are unfinished and I have so little time, but either way, I think I should have it done fairly soon. I will try my absolute best to get the next one out by next week. I know, these villains dawdle far too long. Did you end up finding out about Ozymandias? Yeah, Draco was a bit emotional and disturbed at that moment...it wasn't his finest hour. Lol, yeah, I guess that could come across as a bit slashy, but oh well. All the slashers can jump for joy and all the non-slashers can rest assured that Harry's heart lies with Ginny. Yeah, it took the twins long enough, but as Mrs. Weasley said earlier in the fic, Weasley men are very stubborn and it takes them a long time to get over a grudge, but they eventually do.

**Myr Halcyon **(lol, so did you figure out what closets symbolize? Probably not, and that's okay because it's not obvious. You're right, many villains aren't portrayed as smart, and the heroes are all really intelligent, but then you have Ron, lol. In this fic, Voldie was intelligent, and so was Callahan, actually, but it was really Lucius who was the brilliant one but was still overcome by his desire to see his enemies suffer and his underestimation of them. His ego brought him down. I'm so glad you like what I've done with Draco as I have many skeptics over what I've done with that character, and I personally think it's realistic. I'm so glad I swayed you to my belief that Draco's a character of many layers that haven't yet been explored, only hinted at: his overbearing father, the pressure being put on him by friends and family to become a D.E. and how he's still naïve to what being a D.E. entails. I could never see him as a D.E. and will be disappointed if JKR simply sends him on that path, which I still don't think is what she has in mind for his character. Right, now back to relevant matters. By "Harry's internal ruminations" did you mean something similar to what I did put in the chapter?

**moonlight-madness: **at least you didn't get a cliffie this time around! I didn't leave you in the middle of Harry's near-death call or anything, you should be proud! I'm so glad you like this one! Oh, I love it when people ask me questions about my writing and I'd be more than happy to answer. I'm posting the answers (since it's quite long) on my yahoo group under a post saying something about a review response to you. If you can't get to my yahoo group, just remind me and I'll put a cut down version of it in my next review response. I did have a lot of fun answering those questions though.

**Angel74: **Wow! That's a really long review!! Thanks! Yeah, luckily the boys had enough sense to remember to let people know where the headquarters was. Poor Draco, having to live with the fact that he killed his own father. He had a little freak-out moment there where he forgot how far he'd come and who he really is, but luckily Harry was able to get some sense into him. As you can see, Draco and Harry have rubbed off on each other, and Harry sometimes shows Slythering cunning, while Draco can show the Gryffindor bravery. Well, as I said before in Recnac, levitating someone is very slow (which is why Snape always carried Harry rather than levitated him). Draco had to make a quick decision as to which would be quicker, and he obviously decided that he could make it to the Burrow and get people back to Harry faster than he could levitate him or carry him there, does that make sense? I must admit I do enjoy torturing the poor kid, I can't help it! Yeah, I'm sure Ron's going to be having a bit of a guilt trip about the whole thing, even though it's obviously not his fault. Hmm...I've just realized how many characters are guilt-tripping right now. Lol, oops.

**Musicstarlover, monica85 **(good luck with college yourself! I'm a 1st year as well), **Firestar038 **(Thank you!), **Wynjara, Shawn Pickett, Bluerain22 **(lol, well hey! I'm glad to hear you got emotional over it, it mean's you're a good reader!), **gizachick, maya100, japanese-jew, blink gurl017 **(actually, more than one people asked for this, but I had already worked out this chapter and unfortunately, that didn't fit into what I had in mind. What happened in Harry's "cupboard" was all in Harry's head, hearing slightly what others were saying, projecting things from his past into his dreams. There's a lot of meaning behind how I chose to do this chapter so I couldn't vary from what I had intended for it, sorry! Maybe I'll do a "deleted" scene about it), **Lupin123 **(I know, poor Harry, but at least he survives the chapter! Aren't you pleased with me? There was a lot of confusion about the Portkey. I'll try to clear some of that up in the author's note. If you go back and read the part where they made it, it describes what it turning purple means.), **Zaptor, ChristinaLupin01442 **(er...cowers Love ya guys!), **DreamersDisease, XxGoddessOfImaginaryLightxX, Stellaluna Melonballer **(oops, sorry, there's your last-straw near-death experience for Harry. Sorry you feel that way. I don't look at it like Harry's a damsel in distress. He did a lot of ass-kicking, but he's not untouchable and everyone has a breaking point.), **Jenn the Freak **(lol, thank you for such a wonderful compliment. I love to hear it when readers are moved to tears. Shows me they're getting emotionally involved. Hopefully you thought this chapter had the quality you were looking for), **Marci018 **(Lol, Harry survives yet another chapter. No ritualistic killings of Celebony quite yet. Sorry about the late chapter. Stupid internet access problems....grr..), **Catiechan **(aw, aching heart syndrome, I got that while writing the thing. You're not the only person to ask for a Harry meet the parents scene, but unfortunately, that didn't fit into the plan I had for the scene. This was one of the most planned scenes and so much in it has deliberate meaning that even if most don't catch it, I didn't want to change it. I'll see about making a "deleted" scene about it though.), **ThreeToedSloth** (yeah, applying for college sucks, but actually being in it, at least for me, is a blast. I absolutely love it. I know what you mean! I keep referring to "when Harry was dead" and it just doesn't sound right.), **Babylon for Life **(wow, you got hit by Hurricane Ivan? Well, hopefully everything's going alright with that! Actually, I got _two_ good roomies), **lyss33, Bu, Whispyraven, HaRrYrOxMuhSox, Dominey **(really? Yeah, I guess last chapter was pretty sad, hopefully you'll think this one is pretty emotional as well.), **PaddycakePadfoot, Painted Fire **(Thank you so much for the encouragement!), **tati1 **(Okay, actually you're the only one to point that out and you have a very good point that honestly just slipped through my radar! Count it as a mistake and please forgive me!), **Rhiain, Lourdes, mysticxesperanza, katclaws29, lost angel92, Tatshing** (I know! College life is definitely challenging just keeping up! After this story, there won't be another sequel. I don't know exactly what my plans will be at the moment. I think a bit of a break is in order, at least. I need to catch up with my school work and sleep!), **Dana (MP), AuroraEvanstar **(thank you so much!), **stahchild **(yeah, you underestimate the level of my sadism, but I only torture the characters I love. You'll see where Dumbledore is a bit later.), **Magic Marauder **(sadist in a past life? Harry would attest that I'm a sadist in this life, lol), **sou85a **(I definitely left packing to the last minute, but it all worked out okay.), **Liz **(thank you! "atmospheric", eh? Yay!!), **Riannya **(you're very welcome for putting this up. Yeah, it's been extremely hectic right now, and I must admit that I'm in a pretty zombie-like state right now, but after I finish answering my wonderful reviewers, I'm going to crawl into bed and finally get some sleep.), **Ms. Hobgoblin, aneedtoslashify, Aishwarya **(lol, thanks! I always love to hear when a reader's emotionally involved with my work), **BlxckHeartBroken, leontine **(yeah, I definitely had the valley of cliffs for awhile, sorry about that. They're so fun though! You're spot on though about Harry hearing the voices of those that talk to him.), **istalksiriusonweekends, htbmny, shadowsfriend, Impish Delight, GhostMagic19, Lorie1101 **(I'm so glad you like the Harry angst! I like it too, but some people seem to be thinking it's too much. C'est la vie! I'm so glad you could picture everything in your head...that's a really big compliment for me.), **azntgr01, kneh13, SarahtheBardess **(Oh wow, I'll have to go check out what scene inspired you and what you did with it. That's very flattering that you'd use something of mine for inspiration.), **Leena7, EriEka127, Zork the Unbearable, Laterose, RaNdOmNeSs RuLeZ **(thank you! I'm so glad you like both of my fics so much!!), **TheSerpentAndTheLion **(lol, your entry was really great for the first contest and I'm so glad you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you so much for the comment about my writing. My dream is to be a writer. Anywho, after this one, I have a completely different fic idea, but first I'm going to need a nice long break before I decide whether to tackle it or not. I may write a few drabbles here and there when I'm bored. I guess we'll have to see.), **insanelittleone, hpfanchrissy1502, sami1010220, ChildOfDarkness **(ooh, you got hit by the hurricane too! Wow, I hope things have smoothed over with that!), **eagle, Cynthia1850, Kjkit, venus4280, m, Benevolence **(I know! I'm evil, it's bad. Don't worry, I promise not to abandon the fic. Besides, it's almost over!), **The Black Quill, curlybean **(thank you! I promise I'm not abandoning the story, it's just been a hectic time full of shaky internet access. Actually, I almost did have Draco cover Harry with the invisibility cloak before quickly realizing what a bad idea that would be.), **emsubeme **(Laura and Anna will be back, they're just taking a small vacation right now.), **Hekate101, elyssalyn **(thank you! I'm so glad you like my work. I'm sorry you're not an H/G shipper. Luckily, I don't put too much of it in the story.), **icaro, Amy Da Great, shamanogler, SiriusWolf **(Well, if you are a Raiders fan, I got the name from the coach, or ex-coach (I'm not sure), or more precisely, his son, who I knew and was very, very unfond of. Hmmm...kill Harry to spite Sirius? I think you've been exposed to me for too long, lol.), **Jessikat **(Thanks!), **acciodanrad9 **(I'm so glad you liked Ch 23! It was definitely a more action-packed chapter, especially in comparison to Ch 24. The spell wasn't to make Harry feel pain where he got injured but just a spell to make all his stomach muscles cramp up painfully. Ch. 24 is definitely a change in pace. Don't you love Harry, he may be in pain, but that doesn't stop him from being a good listener, lol.), **Julie, K, Melindaleo **(thank you so much for reviewing so many chapters! I like to see people's thoughts as they work their way through and don't get that too often now that Recnac is done), **americanpie, oxpearxo, Flaignhan **(thank you as well for reviewing so many chapters! It's really helpful and entertaining for me! I hope you're better!), **Benevolence**


	26. Flawed Perfection

**Author's Note: **_sheepishly enters_ Er...hey guys! _cringes at angry glares_ Sorry about that! I know, I've just been so busy with all this college...anyways, here's an extra long chapter....and the last one! Can you believe it? That's right. This is the end...ish. See the note after the chapter!! It's important. And sorry! I didn't have time for review responses if I wanted to get this up this weekend, so I'm sorry!! But I swear I've read every single one and I'm so thankful for all of them! Thank you so much!!

And thank you so much to my beta, Senri!! Senri, you rock and even if you don't always have too much to correct, you know just how scary some of the chapters would have turned out without your help, so thank you!!

I..................................................................................................I

Draco was sitting at Harry's bedside. The adults had all gone to get coffee so the kids were all scattered around the room. Hermione was quietly reading, but everyone else was getting some sleep, sprawled out over the couch transfigured from a few chairs while others had laid their heads on the table to catch a few winks.

Draco sighed and took Harry's hand.

"Hey, Har," he said quietly, ignoring Hermione's glance up at him. "It's time to come back now. We're all waiting here for you. I...I need you okay? There, I said it. You're my first and only friend; you know that. I can't bring myself to talk about what happened until you're back. I'm not getting in trouble without you and, um, I just don't know how to tell Sev what happened so I want you there with me to help me do it. So it's time to leave the place you're in and come back to us. We really miss you."

_Harry looked up as Draco walked in._

"_It's time to leave here, Harry. Time to come back to us. We're all waiting for you," he said, holding out his hand._

"_I'm scared," Harry admitted. _

_Draco just nodded. "I know."_

_Harry took one more look around his cupboard before sighing and taking Draco's hand._

Draco suddenly felt Harry's hand squeeze his weakly. The blonde's eyes widened.

"Harry?" he asked breathlessly.

Harry swallowed and struggled to open his eyes.

"That's right, Harry, come on! You can do it! Open your eyes," he encouraged excitedly. Hermione was at Harry's other side in an instant, helping Draco coax him awake.

Finally, Harry blinked up at them tiredly through half-open eyes.

"Hey, Harry," Hermione said with a teary smile. Harry closed his eyes and swallowed before looking up at her again.

"Hi," he whispered hoarsely. Just the one word seemed to take a lot of effort and Harry winced as it hurt his sore throat.

"Don't talk, Harry. Just take it easy," Draco ordered, smiling in relief.

Hermione woke up the others with a yell and called for someone to get a healer. Neville reluctantly ran from the room to fetch one.

"Harry!" Ron cried in relief, somehow getting in there to carefully hug his friend.

"Ron, be careful! He just woke up from a coma, so give him some room," Hermione scolded. "And Ginny, I think Harry could do without his feet being coddled right now."

The redhead girl looked up through her teary smile. She had indeed latched onto Harry's feet and was kissing them through the sheet, the only part of him she could really get to with all the others crowded around.

Neville burst in the door followed by a healer who quickly shooed everyone away from Harry's bed. Behind him, all the adults burst into the room led by a big black dog who quickly transformed back into Sirius. The spell Mrs. Weasley had taught Sirius had let the man know Harry was awake.

The healer stepped in front of them all.

"Everyone out of this room, right now. Harry has just woken from a coma and I do not want you all overwhelming him. Mr. Black and Professor Snape may stay but that is all. You will all get your time with him later. Now out!" he demanded.

Everyone reluctantly followed orders, promising Harry they'd be back.

"I'm Healer Luhrman," the man informed them.

"Before you do anything, can I see your arm?" Snape asked sternly. "Hr. Callahan ended up being a Death Eater and we don't want to take that chance."

"Of course," the healer said, lifting up his sleeves and letting Snape check for concealing charms. "Just so you know, the hospital is doing a sweep of the staff, checking for Dark Marks in order to not let something like that happen again. Also, I'm related to Albus Dumbledore. He asked me to look after Harry here after what happened before."

Snape nodded and let the healer go about checking over Harry. The Gryffindor boy was tiredly smiling at his godfather who was holding his hand and crying with relief, thanking any god who was listening.

When the healer was done checking Harry over, he assured them all that Harry was on his way to recovery though he'd need to stay in the hospital for a little while to assure that everything was all right.

I.....................................................................................................I

Harry drifted in and out of sleep for the next few days, but as each day passed, the more he was able to stay awake for longer periods of time. Gradually, it took less effort and energy to talk with people, who all competed for time with him, especially when he was awake.

The healers steadily let more people into Harry's room at a time, which had the drawback of not allowing for serious talks that took privacy.

As soon as Harry had gained enough of his strength back, Draco and Harry had to tell their godfathers the entire story. Draco nervously told his godfather about what he had done. Snape made sure Draco knew he was proud of him for doing what it took to protect himself and his friend. Draco was relieved beyond words.

Sirius informed Harry that he would never be letting Harry out of his sight again.

"So wait, let me get this straight," Snape said after they were done. "Your brilliant plan was to let Harry get kidnapped by Death Eaters and hope you all could get out without anyone catching you?"

Draco and Harry looked at each other for a moment thoughtfully.

"Well, it doesn't sound as good when _you_ say it," Draco pouted.

Sirius shot Harry an incredulous look and Harry shrugged sheepishly. "Well, at least I'm improving. In first year, my plans were only to go running after the bad guy and see what happened next. Now, I do escape plans," with a hint of pride in his voice.

Sirius shook his head. "Well, it's the end of your plan-making days, understand? No more rescue missions or battling evil of any kind, got it?" he asked sternly.

Harry nodded.

There was a knock at the door before Remus stuck in his head with a tired smile.

"Is this a bad time?" he asked.

"No, we were just listening to the full story of what happened," Sirius said, his tone clearly indicating that it was not a delightful tale.

Remus shut the door and walked over to Harry, ruffling his hair fondly. "How you feeling, kiddo?" he asked warmly.

"Fine, ready to get out of here," Harry said.

"Harry! You can barely walk on your own. You are in no condition to leave the hospital," Snape said in exasperation.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well, I thought you might all be wondering what the Order's been doing all night," Remus said, conjuring up a chair and sitting down. Everyone perked up to listen. "Well, the second we got word of a Dark Mark we immediately checked it out. We got there just minutes after it was shot up, we guess you did that, Draco?" he asked kindly.

Draco nodded.

"It was perfect to let us know how to get there. Anyway, some of the Death Eaters immediately Disapparated, but we realized that a lot of them were trying to get to this room in the center of the building. We captured quite a few who got trapped in Anti-Apparation warded parts of the place. But many of the Death Eaters were trying to destroy evidence in what appears to be where Voldemort and then Lucius made their plans and kept a bunch of files and such. They were smart enough not to keep certain things, but we found Portkeys that led us right to their other headquarters and notes and books that Lucius used for researching the connections between the Dark Marks and Harry's scar. So, the Order quickly got to another one of the locations and used the information there, and some of the captured Death Eaters, to call the rest. They all Apparated there to meet and, I guess, figure out what to do and we were able to catch them by surprise and round them all up. We don't know for sure that we got all of them, but we definitely captured a great majority, including Healer Callahan. They're all awaiting trial, but they don't have much of a case to defend themselves with. Anyway, Dumbledore's looking over the notes and he says he's figured out how to disable the connection between the marks and the connection between them and your scar, Harry, and is on his way to where they're being held to do it, so the marks and your scar will now only be physical marks with no magic behind them," Remus said with a smile.

Snape and Harry both looked immensely relieved.

"I have a question though," Harry said a bit confusedly. "The healer said Hr. Callahan had been giving me blood thinners and such, but why? I mean, I know he was a Death Eater and all, but it just seemed like it would have been a waste of time to do that sort of thing when the effects were so small."

"He was trying to weaken you," Snape said surely. "You've been so hard to beat that they wanted to make sure they'd be able to kill you more easily while still having you seem as if you were perfectly healthy. I'm sure very few people knew about what Callahan was doing. And obviously, they were uncertain enough about whether they'd be able to kill you or not, that Callahan gave you that potion. That way, even if you escaped as usual, they'd still get their revenge and hopefully pass it off to the unknowing Death Eaters as a result of the injuries they gave you. Obviously, even that didn't work. Lucius tried not to make the Dark Lord's mistake in underestimating you, but still did nonetheless."

"By the way, I saw the condition of the Death Eaters. You two must've put up one hell of a fight," he said with a proud tone.

"Let's not talk about it anymore," Draco said in a pained voice.

Harry nodded in agreement, thinking about the person he killed with the sword. It made him feel sick. He just wanted to forget about that whole night.

Snape stood. "Draco and I are going home. We'll come back and visit you later, Harry."

Harry nodded as the two Slytherins left, Snape's arm draped over Draco's shoulder as if the blonde might disappear if Snape didn't keep a hold on him.

Before the door closed, it was pushed open again as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley entered. Mrs. Weasley ran over and dropped some Tupperware containers on the nightstand before turning to Harry and immediately gathered him in his arms. She began half screaming at him for putting himself at risk, half thanking him for rescuing her son. Harry chuckled as the woman nearly cut off his air supply with her tight embrace.

"I don't trust this hospital food they're feeding you, so I brought you some soup and sandwiches and tonight I'll cook something nice for you. What would you like, dear?"

The moment was broken, however, when Harry noticed Sirius giving Mr. Weasley a deadly look.

"Get out before I strangle you with my bare hands," Sirius growled through gritted teeth.

"Sirius!" Harry gaped at him. He looked at Remus for support, but the werewolf didn't look as if he was going to make any move to stop Sirius. Mrs. Weasley looked like she didn't quite know what to do either. She let go of Harry and stood up.

"Now, you two, I will not have any fighting between you, especially not in Harry's presence," she scolded.

"Look, Sirius, I'm sorry about what I did, but it all worked out and we have all the kids back and whatever you might think, I care about Harry..." Mr. Weasley protested, but stopped when Sirius lunged at the man and punched him in the face. Mrs. Weasley screamed and even Remus seemed surprised as Mr. Weasley looked at Sirius in shock, blood trickling down from his lip.

"Oh my God, Sirius!" Harry shouted. "Stop it!"

"You CARE about him? Oh really?" Sirius yelled furiously. "Sending him off to be killed?" He took another swing, but Mr. Weasley dodged it and whipped out his wand, but Sirius grabbed onto the end and pushed it away, sending a jet of light shooting into a vase, making it explode.

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley screamed. "Put your wand away, you're going to hurt someone!"

"Sirius, stop this now!" Remus yelled, but jumped back as another jet of sparks shot out of Mr. Weasley's wand as the two struggled for it and tried to get in punches at each other. The door swung open and the twins, Ginny and Ron appeared in the doorway, stilling in shock at the scene.

Harry scrambled down to the foot of the bed yelling for Sirius to stop, but his cries just blended into all the other shouting. He reached out to put a hand on Sirius's shoulder, but got in the way as Sirius threw his arm back so he'd be able to get a good punch in to Mr. Weasley, and his elbow collided with the side of Harry's face. Harry fell off the foot of the bed and crashed to the floor.

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked.

The whole scene stilled. Sirius never even followed through with the punch. As soon as he felt his elbow hit something, he turned around, praying it was Remus and not Harry, but to his horror, found his godson trying to sit up on the floor, still weak from being in a coma, holding the cheek which would soon have a bruise on it and looking up at him in shock.

Sirius immediately forgot all about Mr. Weasley and hurried to Harry's side.

"Oh gods, Harry, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were there. I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I'd never hurt you on purpose, I swear," he said desperately.

"It's okay, Sirius," Harry muttered.

"Let me look," Sirius said, holding out his hand to pull Harry's away, stilling when Harry flinched at the movement.

Everyone stared at them in shock before Mrs. Weasley stepped into action.

She first turned to her children. "You four, leave," she ordered.

"But Mum..." Ron protested, wondering if he should tell someone about what he saw in Harry's part of the Nightmare Chamber. He wanted to scream at Sirius to get away from Harry.

"I said, go!" she yelled dangerously.

The four immediately left, shutting the door behind them.

"Now, Arthur, Sirius, apologize to each other this instant!" she commanded.

Sirius took one look at Harry's upset look and immediately turned to Mr. Weasley.

"I apologize, Arthur. Really, I was out of line," he said seriously. He wasn't sorry he'd hurt the man but because he should never have started something like that in front of Harry and, of course, because he had hurt his godson in such a way after all Harry had been through with his relatives.

Mr. Weasley nodded, casting a worried glance at Harry. "I'm sorry too, Sirius, I really am."

"Now both of you apologize to Harry for your behavior!" she said furiously.

"No, you don't need to..." Harry started, embarrassed, but Mr. Weasley interrupted him.

"No, Harry, I want to tell you I'm sorry. Not only for this but for encouraging you so much to go risk yourself for Ron," he said, but Harry doubted he really meant it.

"It's fine," he said firmly, wanting him them all to just stop talking and leave him alone.

"Harry, I am so sorry. I should never have done that with you here," Sirius said sincerely.

"You shouldn't have done it at all! It wasn't Mr. Weasley's fault and what did you expect? Ron is his son! He'd do anything to get him back!" Harry yelled, clearly upset.

"Well, it's not like he was offering to let any of _his _children go risk their lives to get him back," Sirius exclaimed, trying not to let his temper rise too high again.

"Of course not! They're his _kids_. I'm just...I'm just Ron's friend.

"Harry..." Mrs. Weasley started, but Harry cut her off.

"It's okay, really. I never expected to be anything more than that," he said with a reassuring smile that was tinged with sadness.

Mrs. Weasley gave her husband a sharp look and Mr. Weasley looked properly ashamed.

"Molly, Arthur, I think we should leave Harry and Sirius to talk," Remus said, sounding doubtful of his own idea. Nevertheless, he led the two Weasley parents out.

"Harry, how could you just forgive him like that? He sent you on a suicide mission!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Sirius, just think about it. What if you had a son and what happened to Ron happened to him? You would have done the same thing! You wouldn't want to lose your other kids too, because you'd love them just as much!" Harry exclaimed, putting a hand to his head as he was beginning to feel lightheaded. He was still recovering, after all.

"Harry, I think of _you _as my son," Sirius said, regarding Harry worriedly.

Harry sighed and looked away.

"If you did, you would understand how Mr. Weasley felt," he said quietly.

"Harry..."

"Harry!" a new voice exclaimed from the doorway. The pair looked up to see the main nurse looking over Harry. She had taken a great liking to the boy in the few days she'd gotten to know him. "What are you doing out of bed? And on the floor, nonetheless? Get back in there right now! And Mr. Black, Harry needs to take his meds now so you'll have to go so Harry can get his rest."

"Can you give us a few minutes?" Sirius asked hopefully. "We're kind of in the middle of something."

"I'm sorry, we have to stick to schedule and since Harry's still toward the beginning of his recovery, it's even more vital that he gets these on time. He needs his rest in order to make a full recuperation. You can come back later though," she said kindly yet firmly.

Sirius sighed and gently pulled Harry to his feet, insisting on helping the light-headed boy into bed.

"Harry," he whispered, looking into his godson's sad, emerald eyes, "I love you, kiddo, just as much as Arthur loves Ron. Right now I can't fathom myself doing what he did, but it's quite possible that I'd do the same in his position. Your mother told me once that love makes us all hypocrites; that the greatest shame comes from the foolish things we do for those we love. I guess this is what she means. I still want to rip that man to shreds, but I promise I'll think about what you said and try to put myself in his position, okay?"

Harry nodded, looking at his sheet.

The nurse gave Sirius a reassuring smile as she took his place, asking Harry how he was as she prepared his medications.

Sirius walked dejectedly out of the room, only to be approached by a very stern-looking Ron.

"I need to talk to you," he said harshly.

"I'm sorry I hit your father, Ron," Sirius said wearily. "You don't understand..."

"I'm not happy about you hitting my dad, but that's not what I need to talk to you about," Ron said with a slight glare.

"Fine," Sirius relented, following Ron into an empty hospital room. The redhead closed the door behind them.

"I wasn't sure if I should tell you about this, but I guess I'm going to have to so you'll understand how much you just screwed up and how hard you're going to have to try to fix it," Ron said, crossing his arms and looking very unpleased.

"What?" Sirius asked, getting a bit worried.

"I don't know if Harry told you, but the two of us accidentally got ourselves stuck in a psychological torture chamber called the Nightmare Chamber, which, as you might guess from its name, makes the people in it feel like they're in their worst nightmare. Harry could see mine and I could see his." Ron suddenly lost the sharp edge to his voice, and looked almost sympathetic toward Sirius. He sighed and continued. "His worst nightmare was...well it involved a lot. I didn't like him, my family rejected him, and you, you hated him. You tried to give him back to the Dursleys but they wouldn't take him, so you became violent. That's where a lot of Harry's injuries came from, because the Nightmare Chamber makes them sort of real or something if you let it suck you in."

Sirius blanched, looking in horror at Ron. "What? He dreams that I hurt him? _I _gave him those bruises?"

"Well, _you _didn't hurt him, just his dream version of you," Ron said with a helpless shrug.

"But, in Harry's mind, I was the one hurting him. Oh Merlin. Oh gods," he muttered. "How could he ever think that? How could he ever think I'd do something like that to him?!"

"Harry's been treated like crap all his life by people who are supposed to love him, and I think...or I _know_ that it's had a deep effect on him. Deep down, he still thinks we're all going to turn on him, not because of us, really, but more because he doesn't think he's worth it, or some crap like that. I guess if your family spends the first decade of your life drilling it into your head that you aren't worth anything, you start to believe it. I didn't tell you this to make you upset, but I want you to see how much your hitting Harry, even though it was an accident, is going to affect him. You have to try really hard to make him realize that you're not turning into his uncle, that what just happened is never going to happen again and that you'd never ever do it on purpose."

Sirius nodded, stunned.

"This time, you might actually want to talk to him. I think a lot of us will be giving him talks of some sort, but I really think that yours will be the one that matters the most."

"I will. Thank you."

Ron nodded and started toward the door but paused and turned back to the man.

"I want him back," he said.

Sirius didn't have to ask what he meant. It broke his heart to see the careless joy gone from Harry's eyes where it had been earlier in the summer.

He wanted Harry back too.

I................................................................................................I

"Harry!"

Harry jerked awake just as he heard Laura yell after her daughter and something landed on his chest.

Harry opened his eyes and gave Anna an amused smile as she peered down into his face, looking worried.

"Harry, Mommy says you're sick. Are you? Are you almost better?" she asked, smoothing her small hand along his forehead for some unknown reason.

"I am so sorry, Harry. She's been begging to see you so I was just peeking in to see if you were awake and she just ran passed," Laura apologized profusely as she tried to pull Anna away, but the little girl latched onto Harry, wrapping her arms around his neck and clinging onto his hair with a cry of protest. "But, unfortunately, we're going to have to go soon."

"Nooo!!"

"Anna, Mummy has to run an errand," Laura said to her daughter before turning to Harry. She put her hands over Anna's ears and whispered, "There's this ancient potions book a friend of mine just excavated and I've been running around trying to get it translated into English as a present for Sev and I can finally pick it up today! Don't tell him yet though."

"Is that why you've been going out of town so much?" Harry asked curiously.

Laura nodded with a smile. "Yeah. I couldn't take Anna with me because if she found out, she'd blurt it out to anyone who'd listen the first chance she got, but I can take her with me to pick it up and just make sure she isn't around Sev until I give it to him."

She finally let Anna pull her hands away from her daughter's ears.

"I can watch Anna. She can just stay here with me," Harry assured Laura, wincing as Anna pulled at his hair in her attempts to latch onto him.

"Oh please, Mummy, please! I want to stay with Harry!" Anna pleaded.

"Harry, you need your rest," Laura protested, "and Anna's not exactly the calmest thing."

"It's okay. I'm awake and I haven't seen Anna for awhile," Harry said as Anna loosened her grip on his hair and he was able to scoot up so he could sit against his pillows.

Laura sighed, shaking her head at her daughter. "Okay, if you're sure. Sev should be here in a few hours to drop in and check on you, so you can just send Anna off with him."

"Yeah, that'll be fine," Harry said.

"YAY!!" Anna exclaimed, burying her face in Harry's chest.

Laura set down a bag. "If she starts whining for food, there are snacks in there. Feel free to have anything you'd like in there for yourself, as well."

Harry nodded. Laura kissed his cheek and patted his head fondly before taking her leave.

"Harry, I missed you," Anna said fondly, imitating her mother by patting his head.

"You did?" Harry asked, taken aback.

"Duuhhhhh," she said with a giggle. "Sevvie said you've been in bed for a very long time, so I brought toys for us to play with so you're not bored!"

Anna scrambled off the bed and began digging through the bag, throwing what Harry guessed was the wizarding equivalent of a few Barbies onto the bed, along with all the accessories for it. Harry's eyebrow shot up as he prayed he wouldn't actually be expected to play Barbies.

He picked one up curiously, but dropped it in shock when it poked at his hand with its small wand and gave him an annoyed look. The doll stood up and shot him an indignant look before lying down and going stiff again.

Harry decided these were much creepier than Barbies.

Anna hopped back onto the bed with a grin. "Okay, this is Diana. She likes to play with animals and has a cool bow and arrow that's..." she trailed off, searching for it, "...well, it's somewhere here. And this is Venus. She's the beautiful one and has the prettiest clothes. Oh and here's my new one, Quidditch Iris! She has a broom and some of the balls. I lost one of the Bludgers though. Um, um, Mercury, he's a boy...here he is! He can play Quidditch too! Right now he has blonde hair, but watch..."

She ran the miniature brush through his hair and it turned black. She tapped at his face and to Harry's surprise, the doll blinked and when the eyes opened back up, they were bright green.

"Now he looks like you!" Anna pointed out excitedly. "Come on, Mercury, stand up now," she instructed the doll.

Harry spent a few hours with Anna eating cookies shaped like magical creatures and following her instructions, picking out outfits for the dolls to change into and such, all of which he would never admit to anyone that he ever did.

Eventually, Harry drifted off to sleep. Anna continued to make the dolls march around on his chest for a little longer before pushing them all away into the covers. She curled up next to Harry and fell asleep, her small head resting on his chest.

I..............................................................................................I

Harry later awoke to find Anna being lifted off of him. He felt the painful marks from where his glasses were digging into the side of the face.

He looked up in confusion, as it was Fred who was holding a sleeping Anna in one arm, and grabbing her bag with the other. George was sitting in the chair beside Harry's bed.

"Snape's here, so we're handing Anna on over to him. We need to have a chat with you," George explained, helping Harry into a sitting position.

Fred soon came back into the room, and sat down on Harry's other side. Harry expected to see the jovial, mischievous expressions of the twins, but instead was met with stern looks and crossed arms, reminding him unexpectedly of Mrs. Weasley.

"How are you feeling?" George asked in concern.

"Fine," Harry answered. Seeing their skeptical looks he added, "I'm getting better."

"Harry, what were you thinking?" Fred demanded.

Harry blinked up at him in confusion. "Huh?"

"We said no more dangerous stuff! We shook on it!" George said in frustration.

"You guys, Ron..."

"You should have told us what you were doing! Ron's our brother, but so are you," Fred said seriously.

"We're really thankful for what you've done. First Ginny, now Ron, but you're not immortal, Harry! You could have been killed! In fact, it's a miracle you're still alive, and you don't even seem to care!" George exclaimed.

"Well, we had a plan..." Harry started to protest.

"That failed," Fred pointed out.

"No, we just had a slight hitch. It all worked out okay," Harry insisted.

"It all worked out okay?!" George exclaimed. "You've just emerged from a coma that nearly killed you and the Malfoy boy—er, _Draco_—is traumatized because he had to murder his father. You were both so nearly killed! And you think that's _okay_?!"

"Do you think Draco's really traumatized?" Harry asked worriedly.

The twins looked at him incredulously. Fred seized Harry by the shoulders, causing the raven-haired boy to yelp in surprise, but Fred just looked him searchingly in the eyes.

"Harry, do you seriously not get how important you are? Do you seriously not care about yourself? Do you seriously not care that you nearly died?" Fred asked with slight horror.

"Sure I care about myself," he said without much conviction, "but I didn't die. I'm fine! It's not that big of a deal. I've done this sort of thing before and nobody reacted like this. You guys used to send me candy and toilet seats when I did stuff like this, so I don't understand why you're yelling at me now," he said with sincere confusion.

The twins were struck speechless. Harry was right. He had drastically risked his life for others every year in Hogwarts and no one had told him it was wrong until the cancer. In fact, they had all congratulated him for it. By not scolding Harry for it previously, it had been a message to him that it wasn't a big deal, that his life and safety weren't big deals in comparison to everyone else's. They had unknowingly helped drill in the Boy Who Lived title into Harry, making the boy think that's all he was to other people.

"We were stupid," Fred said finally.

"Complete morons," George added.

"We should have been yelling at you since your first year..."

"Because it's not your job to rescue people or play hero all the time..."

"And we don't want you to do it..."

"We want you to be done with all this..."

"We want you to just have a normal life from now on..."

"Or as normal of a life as you can have being practically family with us..."

"No more 'Boy Who Lived'..."

"Only Harry..."

"Deal?" they concluded simultaneously.

"I'll try," Harry offered.

"What is this '_try_'?" Fred asked, acting shocked. "There is no _try_ here. This is a do or don't situation and you have to promise us that you won't do this kind of stuff anymore!"

"I can't promise that," Harry said apologetically. At the twins upset expressions he went on. "Well, I can't! Every time I think this stuff is over, it's not. I'll always be a target and that makes people around me targets just because they're associated with me!"

"Harry, it's not your job to play hero all the time!" a distressed George protested.

"It is when it's the only way. It's my fault these things happen in the first place so it's my job..."

"Harry!" Fred interrupted sharply. "Don't be ridiculous! It's not your fault any of this stuff happens!"

"Ron got kidnapped as a trap for me," Harry pointed out. "The whole school nearly got slaughtered because Voldemort was after me! Cedric..."

"Harry, those things aren't your fault, you can't actually think those things are your fault!" George said in frustration.

"It's not your fault psychopaths are always after you just because a curse backfired when you were one."

"Look, what would you have done if you had been in my position? What would you do if you knew that you could get Ron back and you were the only chance he had? What if you found out something bad was going to happen in the school, but nobody would listen to you? Would you try to stop it or just let it happen?"

Fred and George were silent.

"But why is it always you?" Fred asked with a sigh.

Harry thought about the question for a second.

"Aside from the whole Boy Who Lived thing, I guess it's because I'm nosy," he concluded with a laugh. "Because when things start going on, Hermione, Ron and I can't let it go and have to figure it out, especially Hermione. At least that's how it started out."

"Okay, new rules!" George jumped in. "First of all, no more being nosy. Second, if you are ever being nosy or planning on doing something stupid or anything like that, you have to tell us, okay? You have to promise."

Harry hesitated.

"Harry!" Fred exclaimed.

"Well, you guys would stop me from doing whatever I was going to do!" Harry said helplessly.

"You bet your arse we wou—OW!"

"What my dear brother was trying to say," Fred said with a glare at George, who was rubbing his forehead where the piece of candy Fred had thrown at him had hit, "is that if you absolutely _had_ to go on some crazy heroic escapade, we would want to make sure it would be as safe as possible for you and help you with it."

"Liar," Harry said with a grin.

"Okay fine, I'm lying," Fred admitted, "but look, Harry, maybe in the past you've been swept up in all these messes, but from now on, it's not your job to do this stuff! Let someone else do it! It doesn't have to be you."

"Harry, you've done enough heroic stuff in your life, okay? You're done. You've already died for Merlin's sake! We can't take it anymore! I hate coming to hospitals and hospital wings all the time because you're in there once again. You don't know what you do to us when you do this sort of thing!"

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be sorry about things that are already done, it's useless. Just don't do them again," George implored.

Harry nodded.

"Alright, well it looks as if you can use some rest, so we'll leave you to it," Fred said, getting up and ruffling Harry's hair fondly.

The twins left the room and exchanged a knowing look. They were going to need to do some serious work on Harry's self esteem and they would make that kid have a sense of self-worth if it was the last thing they did.

I.........................................................................................I

Harry looked up as Ginny walked into the room with a smile. He immediately began struggling to sit up, and she hurried to his side to help prop up his pillows, causing Harry to blush.

"Thanks, Gin," he said with a shy smile.

"You're welcome. Now budge over," she said, sliding into the bed next to him. She gasped and then pulled out a small plastic bow and arrow out from underneath her. "Er...Harry, have you been playing with Diana dolls?"

"You've found me out," Harry joked. "My secret passion." He smiled tiredly and leaned back against his pillows. "I'd watch out, I think Anna brought more stuff in here than she took out. I woke up earlier to the pain of Quidditch Iris and her broom jabbing into my shin."

Ginny chuckled and set the plastic toy on the dresser.

There was a long silence before Ginny turned and pulled Harry into a hug, despite the awkward position.

"Ginny, are you alright?" Harry asked worriedly.

She pulled away and turned her body around so she was kneeling on the bed facing him. She looked directly into his eyes.

"Harry, I don't want to do this anymore, this trying to pretend I just want to be your friend when the entire world knows that's just ridiculous. Harry, don't you get it? I'm crazy about you," she said seriously. "Don't feel obligated to feel any particular way about me. I swear I won't set my brothers on you. I just wanted you to know because I suddenly wasn't sure if you _did_ know."

Harry looked at her, slightly shell-shocked before looking down at his lap.

"Ginny, you deserve so much better than me," he said, looking up at her with sadness in his eyes before looking away again. "Don't get me wrong, I...um, well, I like you more than a friend...a _lot _more than a friend," he said sounding very flustered, blushing at how stupid he sounded, "but I'm such a mess and everything around me is a mess and everything I touch becomes a mess and you could be with someone who's so much better and perfect and um...un-messy," he finished lamely.

Ginny chuckled at his comment and lifted his chin with her fingers so his eyes met hers. "Harry, think of who you're talking to. You know my family and what my house looks like. We're already chaotic and I wouldn't have it any other way. Besides, don't you think I already know your life can be messy at times? I want to be part of your mess, if you want me there, that is."

Harry blinked at her in disbelief. "You do? Are you sure? It's _really_ messy. And dangerous. And..."

"And so is the twins' room, but that's never stopped me from going in there to get what I want," Ginny said with a grin.

Harry grinned as well. "Are you really, really..."

"Oh shut it, Harry," Ginny said, leaning in and capturing Harry's lips in hers. "I've never been surer in my life," she whispered against his mouth.

"Good," he whispered back before sliding a hand up to the side of her face and, somewhat shyly, kissing her again.

"Ahem," somebody cleared their throat from the other side of the room. The two shot apart and whipped their heads toward the doorway to find Healer Luhrman standing there with an amused expression. "It's time for some potions for you Harry, including a nice sleeping potion."

"Now?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes, now. As romantic as hospital rooms are, there will be no pre-marital, underage sex on my ward, especially right after you've emerged from a coma, Harry," he said with a look that was stern yet joking at the same time.

Harry's jaw dropped and he blushed furiously. Ginny blushed as well but laughed.

"We weren't...we didn't..." Harry stuttered.

"That's what they all say," Healer Luhrman teased, handing Harry a few cups, waiting to make sure Harry drank them all. "Now, I'd say you two have about a minute left of snogging time before Harry here is passed out, have fun," he chuckled as he left the room.

Harry was already beginning to feel the effects of the potion as he looked over to Ginny, who was grinning at him in amusement.

"So this is really romantic, huh?" Harry asked with a tired smile. "A minute after we get together and I'm falling asleep."

"And who could dream of a better setting?" Ginny chuckled as she helped Harry settle down, adjusting his pillows. "White walls, hospital staff barging around, monitoring spells making strange beeping noises in the background."

"Well, at least I've got my most stylish outfit on," Harry joked, gesturing to his striped hospital pajamas.

"Yet you're still gorgeous," Ginny said with a smile, leaning down and kissing him quickly, finding his surprised look at the compliment too adorable to resist. "I'll keep from telling everyone about all this for awhile so you can focus on getting better rather than people harassing you about this, okay?"

Harry nodded sleepily.

Ginny laid down next to him and the two turned toward each other, Harry's eyes struggling to stay open. Ginny removed his glasses and placed them on the nightstand before lightly running her finger up and down the side of his face until his breathing evened out.

"I love you, Harry," she whispered to the sleeping boy. "Never doubt that."

I...............................................................................................I

Harry scooted up in bed as Healer Luhrman came in to look him over.

"Hey, Harry, how's it going?" he asked as he took Harry's arm and prepped it for taking some blood.

"Fine. How soon can I get out of here?" he asked as usual.

"Very soon. You're making a good recovery. But you're going to have to take it easy of course."

"Yeah, yeah," Harry said dismissively. He'd had the lecture multiple times before.

After the healer had checked over Harry, he smiled down at the raven-haired boy.

"You have quite the family, you know," the man said with a grin. "An Animagus, a Potions master, a werewolf, Slytherins, Gryffindors, a Hufflepuff, redheads, blondes, brunettes, witches, wizards, Muggles, a bunch of adults, a bunch of teenagers and a little girl."

"Oh, they're not my family. The closest is Sirius. He's my godfather, but my real family's either dead or would die before coming to see me," Harry said with a sad sort of chuckle.

The healer sat down on the edge of his bed. "When you were flat-lining, you had your friend Ron screaming and crying in here looking as if he would die if you did. Outside this door, everyone else was fighting like you'd never believe to get to you. Now, despite any animosity between each other, they're helping each other and working together because you are more important to them than anything. Everyone out there loves you like crazy and needs you in their own way, even if it might not always be obvious. It doesn't matter if they're related to you by blood. They may come from different backgrounds, have different ideals, and look very different from you and each other, but each of them has a part of them that would die if you did, and _that_ is what family truly is."

The healer winked at him and left the room, giving Harry a lot to think about.

I............................................................................................I

Harry stepped out of the fireplace into the living room of the Lighthouse. He had finally been released from the hospital. Sirius stepped out right behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Happy to be home? Tonight you'll be able to sleep in your own bed and eat normal food rather than that scary hospital stuff, even though I know that occasionally my cooking can be just as frightening," Sirius said with a smile.

"I like your cooking," Harry said quietly. "I should go unpack," he said, heading toward the stairs.

"Wait, Har. What do you want for dinner? It can be anything you like, and if we don't have it, I'll owl-order some take out."

"Anything is fine," Harry said with a strained smile before heading up the stairs.

He made his way to his room and shut the door behind him. He looked around and took a deep breath. It should have felt good to be home, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't supposed to be there, that he didn't belong.

In the hospital, they had all insisted that it would be different now, but he doubted it would. The healer said he had almost died, but Ron had talked him out of it. He never got up the courage to ask Ron what he had said to make Harry change his mind, not wanting to face questions about why he had almost chosen to leave. He remembered something about a dark place and his parents and something holding him back, but that was it. He wished he could remember what had happened with his parents. What if they had said something to him that he should be remembering? The healer had said anything he might have dreamed was just that, a dream, but how did he really know? Maybe Harry had been so close to death that his parents had actually managed to communicate with him and he couldn't even remember.

He grabbed a framed picture of his parents off his nightstand and sank down to the floor, leaning against his bed. His parents smiled and waved at him. James tickled Lily's sides and the redhead laughed before spinning around and smacking James's arms to make him stop. The two hugged and then looked back at Harry, smiling at him again.

He could have been with them.

Harry set down the picture and brought his knees to his chest. He put his face in his arms and began to quietly cry.

Why had he chosen to come back only to face the nightmares again? Why come back to people that didn't even want him?

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his back and he jerked his head up to find Sirius crouched down next to him, looking at him sadly.

"Sirius? I just...I um..." Harry stammered, trying to wipe away the tears and stop the rest from coming.

"Shhh...Harry, come here," he said, pulling Harry gently into a fatherly embrace.

Harry stiffened, waiting for it to be over, but Sirius just held him and after he realized Sirius wasn't going away any time soon, Harry couldn't stop the tears anymore.

"I'm sorry, Sirius," he sobbed hysterically. "I'm sorry I wasn't a better godson. I'm sorry I broke your rules. I'm sorry I disappointed you. I'm sorry for being a stupid burden. I'm sorry for keeping you from living the life you wanted. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll move back to the Dursleys' so you can have your life back or, or, I can be more like my father if you want. I...I'll do whatever you want, I just don't know what you want me to do!"

He was crying harder than he ever had in his entire life, everything that had been weighing on his mind rushing to the surface to feed the flood, and he couldn't seem to stop talking either.

"I don't want you to hate me like the Dursleys do. I thought they loved me and I was so stupid to think that! But now I can't tell! I can't tell and everyone who said they cared about me really doesn't and I'm just so confused I don't know who to believe because everyone lied! You all lied!"

"Harry," Sirius said, now crying as well, "Harry, I never lied to you. I _do_ love you and I would never, _ever _send you back to the Dursleys. I don't want you to be like James. I want you here and I want you the way you are," he insisted.

Harry wrenched himself away from Sirius and fell back into his dresser, still weeping. "Please, just stop lying to me! I can't take it anymore!" he screamed.

Sirius crawled over and grabbed his protesting godson and pulled him back to his chest.

"I'm not lying, Harry. I swear to you. Please trust me. I love you."

Harry shook his head wildly. "I'm a FREAK, Sirius! I'm a freak! You can't love me! You CAN'T want me around! It doesn't work that way! I'm just ruining your life like I ruin EVERYONE ELSE'S!" he sobbed helplessly.

"Harry, Harry listen to me," Sirius said firmly, holding Harry by the shoulders so he could look into his godson's face, which was contorted in emotional agony. "You are _not_ a freak. Whatever the Dursleys hammered into your head is complete and utter dragon-shit. Everything negative they ever said to you was complete crap."

Harry shook his head. "You're wrong. I'm weak and whiny and arrogant and nobody wants me around. I'm no use to anyone anymore now that I don't have the wandless magic and extra power thing. Now I'm just leeching off everyone's happiness and I don't want to do that; I don't." He took a shuddering breath as tears rolled down his face. "I'm, I'm _annoying_ and..." He let out a sob. "...an _embarrassment_. And I _know_ that everyone's sticking around me because they feel obligated or they pity me or something. And..."

Sirius cut him off, once again hugging him. "Harry no. No. Merlin, no. Listen to me. You have so many people who care about you, Harry, but I won't speak for them right now. I'll speak for myself. Your wandless magic thing doesn't matter. You're a very strong wizard, even without all that extra stuff, and that extra magical energy was brought on by you having cancer, so I'm more than happy it's gone. Besides, your _use_ is not to go around saving the world, it's to be you and to be happy and to be my godson. I would love you just as much if you were a squib. I don't give a damn about how powerful your magic is. You're not _leeching_ off my happiness, Harry; you _are _my happiness. _You _are what chases away my bad thoughts and dreams. _You_ are the reason I've been able to move passed Azkaban and that whole horrible nightmare. You are _not _annoying and _never_ an embarrassment. I love you as if you were my own son."

Harry nodded but looked skeptical as he began to calm down, sniffling and occasionally hiccupping as he tried to control his tears.

"Harry, one day when I tell you I love you, you're going to believe it and you're going to know it's true," Sirius promised quietly as Harry pulled away, wiping his face on his sleeve.

"What if I turn out like my uncle?" Harry asked quietly.

"What?" Sirius asked, completely taken aback at the ridiculous inquiry.

"They say this sort of thing continues," Harry said, a bit hysterically. "They say if you get abused the chances are good you'll be abusive yourself. It's that whole cycle thing. I might end up like that! I..."

"Harry, don't be ridiculous!" Sirius exclaimed. "Wait, is this why you've been refusing to babysit Anna?"

"I don't want to hurt her," Harry said tearfully, looking away. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

Sirius put his fingers under Harry's chin and turned his face back so Sirius could look Harry in the eye.

"You are nothing like your uncle," he said slowly and deliberately. "You are _nothing_ like him."

"But what if I..."

"You won't," Sirius cut him off firmly. "You don't have that in you."

"Sirius, I've killed two people!" Harry protested.

"Voldemort and a Death Eater, both of whom were trying to kill you. It was self-defense and self-sacrifice, not something you wanted to do."

Harry sniffed and wiped some of the tears from his face.

"I'm sorry for everything," he said quietly.

"Harry, listen to me. Yes, I'm upset you went after Ron without telling me. Yes, I'm upset that you risked your life. But, it's because I care about you so much. It would destroy me if I lost you again."

Harry blinked up at him in surprise. He numbly shook his head.

"Yes, Harry, it would," Sirius insisted. "When you...when you died, my life just lost all meaning. The entire time, I just sat next to your body lying there on Dumbledore's huge bed. I didn't eat or sleep, I just sat there, wishing I could die too..."

"Don't say that," Harry whispered.

"It's true. I think Remy's the only thing that kept me from doing anything drastic. You hadn't even seen your room..." Sirius trailed off, getting emotionally worked up at the memory.

"I love my room," Harry offered.

"I wanted it to be perfect when I was working on it. I just felt that if I made it perfect, you'd want to stay in it forever...you'd never want to leave it and therefore you never would. You'd just stay here forever with me and you could just be my godson and we'd just talk and eat in this room and never leave. You'd never leave..."

"Sounds nice," Harry said quietly with a sniff.

Sirius smiled at him fondly. "Yeah, it would be nice but that's not the way life works. If I hid you away from the world, you wouldn't get to experience all the good parts of life."

"I'm sick of the rest of the world," Harry said angrily. "All they care about is drama; they're addicted to it and they don't care about the people it's happening to. I'm sick of playing hero to people who want me to beat the bad guys but find it almost more exciting when my name's smeared in the dirt. They stick me up so high on this pedestal that of course I'm going to fall!"

"Are you still talking about the public in general or maybe people closer to you?" Sirius asked knowingly.

Harry opened his mouth to speak but then changed his mind and just shrugged, looking out the window.

"Maybe people like me?" he asked sadly.

Harry looked over at him in surprise. "No, I didn't mean..."

"Harry," Sirius said gently, "look, I need you to know that despite what you might think, I do not wish you were more like James."

Harry immediately looked away.

"I know I've been constantly commenting on how you aren't like him, but I swear to you that it was just out of surprise," Sirius insisted firmly. "I've just been seeing more and more how different you two are, which is just interesting because you two look so similar and are, of course, so closely related. I never was disappointed in the fact though."

Harry looked up at him with a glint of hopefulness in his eyes.

"Okay, the rest of today's going to be one long talk. Let me go order some owl-delivery and get my list."

"List?" Harry asked, allowing himself to be helped to his feet.

"I, er, I made a list of things I wanted to talk to you about...really talk to you about...so I don't forget anything," Sirius said with a tinge of embarrassment.

"Wow, that's really nerdy," Harry teased, but the thankful look on his face pushed all of Sirius's doubts away.

"Harry, please. I am never _nerdy_. I am the essence of all things cool and suave," Sirius said matter-of-factly.

Harry snorted with laughter and Sirius ruffled his hair indignantly before slinging an arm over his shoulder and leading him downstairs for a very overdue talk.

I................................................................................................I

Harry jerked awake from another nightmare about his uncle. He was shaking and sweating as he looked wildly around his room. He fumbled for his lamp and switched it on, making sure the tall shadows were nothing more than bits of furniture and such. He shakily put on his glasses and hugged his knees to his chest.

Suddenly, his door opened and Harry nearly jumped out of his skin. Sirius padded into the room and Harry looked at him in surprise.

"Siri? What are you doing up here? How did...did you fix the squeaky stair?" he blurted out in bewilderment.

"Ah, I thought that might have been how you've been knowing when I'm coming. Yes, I fixed it. Now, what was your nightmare about?" Sirius asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Harry blinked at him owlishly. "I didn't have a..."

"Harry, please let me help you. I could go through and guess what it was about, but it would be a lot easier if you told me," Sirius said.

Harry paused uncertainly.

"My uncle," he murmured.

"Ah, the king of bastards himself," Sirius nodded. Harry looked up at him in surprise. "Where did it take place?"

"Um, it started out here. He came out of my closet," Harry admitted, looking at his lap. "And then I was back at Privet Drive in my cupboard."

"And what was he doing?" Sirius continued to prod patiently. He had finally realized that Harry needed the questions.

Harry shrugged, not looking at his godfather. "The same stuff he always did. Yelling and um, other stuff."

"He was hurting you?" Sirius prompted.

Harry nodded with a sigh. "I know it's stupid. I don't know why I'm still having these stupid dreams, I should be over it..."

"Harry, it's not stupid. Of course it's still affecting you. The Dursleys didn't only physically abuse you but they mentally abused you your entire life. Don't shake your head, Harry; it's true. They neglected you and treated you horribly. But that's because they were scum, Harry, not you."

"They hated me," Harry said quietly. "I embarrassed them."

"Well, you make me proud every day," Sirius said sincerely.

Harry looked up with such a thankful look in his eyes for the compliment that Sirius's heart melted and he immediately pulled Harry into a fatherly embrace.

He finally pulled away and ruffled Harry's hair. "Want to come stay in my room tonight? I have a huge bed made for about five people," he said, trying to make it sound enticing.

"No, I'm fine," Harry said with a weak smile. Sirius didn't miss his eyes flicker to the closet.

"Okay," he said, remaining sitting on the bed. "Well, I'm going to stay here until you get to sleep."

"Sirius, I'm fine, really. I'm never going to be able to get back to sleep with you watching me," Harry said with a blush.

"Alright, but I'll know if you don't go back to sleep. And Harry, I want you to come to me if you ever need anything, okay? My door's always open, even if it's just that you don't want to spend the night alone, okay?" Sirius said intently.

Harry nodded and settled down under the covers.

An hour later, Sirius knew Harry had not yet gone back to sleep and went back upstairs.

Despite Harry's protests, Sirius sat next to Harry until the tired boy drifted off to sleep only five minutes after Sirius had come in.

I..............................................................................................I

Sirius continued this every time Harry couldn't sleep or woke from a nightmare. Gradually, Harry began sleeping through the nights on his own, and on the nights he couldn't, he stopped protesting when Sirius offered to stay until Harry fell asleep.

One night, Sirius woke knowing that Harry had. As usual, he waited a little while to see if Harry would come to him, and just when he was sitting up to go to him, he looked up to see Harry standing in his doorway, looking like he was having an internal debate with himself.

"Hey kiddo," Sirius said, making Harry jump. "Come on." He nodded toward the spot on the bed next to him.

"Are you sure? I mean, I..." Harry said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Harry, of course I'm sure."

Harry padded his way over and unsurely climbed into the bed. Close up, Sirius could see that Harry had been crying and was still on the verge of doing so.

"Harry, come here," Sirius said, sitting up slightly against the pillows.

Harry suddenly burst into tears and buried his face into his godfather's chest as Sirius rubbed his back comfortingly.

"Harry, shh, it's okay. Tell me what's wrong," he said gently.

"I'm so sorry about everything. I don't mean to make you upset or angry! I just want you to like me and I promise not to break the rules again. I don't mean to be bad. I'll be better, I swear. Please don't give me back to the Dursleys," Harry sobbed, gripping onto Sirius's nightshirt.

"Oh Merlin, Harry, you're not bad. I _do _like you and I would NEVER give you back to the Dursleys," Sirius said in horror, tightening his grip around Harry as the younger boy cried. "Was this in a dream? Did you dream I try to give you back to the Dursleys?"

"You tried but they wouldn't take me so you got mad," Harry admitted sorrowfully. "I'm sorry I dreamed that. I just..."

"Did you dream that I hurt you?" Sirius asked with a pained expression.

Harry paused.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why, I just dream it every once in awhile," he apologized desperately.

"Harry, I swear to you, I would NEVER hurt you. I'd give my life for you," Sirius said firmly.

"I know, I'm sorry. It's not just you so please don't be offended. Everyone hates me in my dreams," he said, sounding haunted.

"Well, in real life, you have a whole bunch of people who love you, including myself. You're like my son, and I wish you were every single day," Sirius reassured him.

Harry began to calm down. "Thank you," he whispered with a sniff. "I'm sorry."

"Harry, stop apologizing for things you don't need to apologize for. I'm glad you came to me," Sirius said sincerely. "I will always be here for you, no matter what, until the day I die, and even then I'll be keeping my eye on you."

"I don't want you to die," Harry murmured, sounding scared.

"Well, I don't want _you_ to die either, which is why the two of us are going to take it easy on the danger for the rest of our lives. No more crazy adventures, no more playing hero, no more revenge, deal?"

"Deal," Harry murmured tiredly, laying his head on Sirius's chest as Dudley used to do with his father when they were younger.

As a child, Harry had occasionally run to his aunt and uncle's room for comfort when his cupboard wasn't locked, but was always immediately sent back. A few times, he'd just watched miserably from the doorway as Dudley scrambled into the larger bed and curled up with his parents, his heart aching.

Harry stiffened and pulled away. "Sorry, Siri. I'm acting like a five-year-old," he said sadly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Harry," Sirius said reassuring him. "Besides, not only did you miss out on your childhood, but I missed out on raising you. We have a lot of childhood to make up for."

Harry smiled and settled back down against his godfather feeling instantly comforted.

"Your parents would be so proud of you," Sirius commented softly after a few moments of silence.

Harry glanced up at him skeptically before looking away. "Not if they saw me when I was at the Dursleys. I turn into a cowering mess when I'm around my uncle. Hell, I still do even when I dream about him," Harry said in self-disgust.

"Harry, it's okay to be afraid. Everyone's afraid of something. Your parents would be proud of you for everything you've become, fears included," Sirius said comfortingly.

"What are _you_ afraid of?" Harry asked curiously.

"Swear not to tell anyone? Not even Moony?" he asked after a moment's hesitation.

Harry looked up in surprise. "Swear."

"Cats," Sirius said with a slight shudder.

Harry couldn't help but laugh. "You're afraid of cats? But your Animagus form is..."

"A dog, yes, I know. That's why nobody can know. There must have been some serious miscalculation there when the spell decided I'd make a good dog. I'm the only dog that runs from cats rather than chasing after them," he said sheepishly. "Of course, I'll put on a brave front in front of others, but inside I'm just a shaking mess and if it comes near me I find an excuse to get away. Luckily most cats will run off as soon as I bark, so my friends never really knew, but I've had a few times where I've gotten really close to one or had one chase after me, and I become a shame to the canine kind. So I just tell people I'm allergic to them."

"I'll make sure Hermione not to bring Crookshanks around," Harry said with a tired smile.

"Thanks, kiddo. So, afraid of anything else?" Sirius asked mischievously.

"Well, I don't like small spaces and thunderstorms seem to get to me for some reason," Harry admitted quietly. "What about you?"

"Hmm...snakes and sharks. I know you're great amigos with all the lovely snakes out there, but it's harder for the rest of us to convince them not to sink their fangs into our nice juicy ankles, and sharks...you know how when you're swimming in the ocean and you can't see anything through the water? Don't you ever all of a sudden wonder what's underneath you?"

Harry was silent for a moment. "I've never been to the beach. The Dursleys went all the time, but they never took me. I can't swim very well anyways, so it's probably best that they didn't take me or I would have probably drowned," he said with a slight pain in his voice that he was obviously trying to hide.

"Well, I'll take you to the beach, though I'm not swimming out deep in the water where all the large carnivorous sea creatures like to find their meals. You've swum in the swimming hole, though, right?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded tiredly. "Yeah, but I've never been in anything bigger...except for the second task in the Tri-Wizard tournament, but I could breathe under water for that. I _can_ swim, sort of, but not well."

"Well, I'll teach you how," Sirius vowed.

Harry looked up at him and thanked him with a smile.

Sirius started quietly telling him about a time the Marauders had gone to the beach with Lily and her friends.

"...and of course we didn't realize the tide had been getting steadily higher and closer to us. So, after they buried me completely in the sand, this wave came. They saw it coming and tried to pull me out, but they'd packed me down too much. It wasn't a huge wave or anything, but it was freezing. And when the wave went back out, there were all these little sand crabs it had left on the sand on my stomach and they started burrowing in. Oh Merlin, Harry, I could feel them get through the sand and hit my skin and, urgh, it was so disturbing. I was screaming and wriggling, which just made it harder for them to pull me out and suddenly all the water disappeared, being sucked into the ocean. That's when you know there's a really big one coming. So the girls dropped to their knees and began digging as fast as they could, looking behind me with this look of horror on their faces, so I looked around and there was the largest wave I've ever seen in my life, I'm not joking. So finally, Remy and James went behind me and were able to lift me out of the sand and we all ran as hard as we could, screaming as the wave crashed down behind us. We didn't get caught in it, thank Merlin, but it did knock our feet out from under us. And now you're asleep, having missed the whole second half of my story, but it's alright, because, as Moony always says, I enjoy listening to myself talk," he chuckled fondly, stroking the black mop of hair with his fingers. Harry had an arm thrown over him and his head was settled comfortably on Sirius's chest, allowing his godfather's presence to keep the nightmares at bay. "You know, kiddo, I think we're going to be alright. I think we're going to be a really good family, you and I. And Moony, of course, as godfather number two. A bit of a strange family, but really great. I promise you that much, Harry."

Sirius fell asleep soon after, an arm loosely wrapped around his godson's shoulders.

I..................................................................................................I

Remus and Harry were sitting together on the living room couch while Sirius was attempting to make tea after his first batch somehow exploded, though nobody could understand how. Thus was the magic of Sirius's cooking.

"Well, I probably should get going," Remus said with a sad smile.

"Where do you have to go?" Harry asked. Remus chuckled.

"Home. Thank Merlin we're getting a break from the Order. For awhile, that seemed like all my life was."

"Can't you stay here then?" Harry asked hopefully.

He didn't know why, but Harry had felt closer to Remus ever since he'd been in his coma. He had a feeling that Remus didn't really want to go home, though he wasn't sure where he got that idea.

Remus gave him an almost suspicious look. "Do you...do you remember anything I said to you when you were in your coma?"

"No, I don't remember anything people said..." he trailed off, giving Remus the impression that he was leaving something out.

"But..." he prompted

Harry sighed. "I have these vague...feelings...I think, and I could be completely wrong, but I feel like my parents were there, like maybe I talked to them or saw them but I can't remember."

"Harry..." Remus started sympathetically. Harry looked up at him almost pleadingly.

"What if I'm not just imagining it? What if I did talk to them and can't remember?" he asked, clearly getting upset.

Remus put an arm around Harry's shoulders and gave him a comforting smile.

"I don't know if you did or not, but if you did, I'm pretty sure I could tell you what they would have said."

Harry looked at him a little warily. "You're going to get sappy, aren't you?"

Remus laughed. "Yup. They would have said how proud of you they are, and that as much as they'd like to be with you, you need to stop these crazy, risky escapades because it is definitely not your time yet. They would have said how much they miss you and how much of your mother you have in your personality, even if you have James's physical looks.

"And maybe to be wary of Sirius's cooking," Harry said with a sly grin.

The two chuckled as Sirius called from the kitchen, "Did someone say something bad about my cooking again?"

"Of course not!" the two called back.

"Don't beat yourself up over this, Harry. One day you'll be able to talk to them as much as you want, and until then you get Sirius for a parent...good luck," Remus joked. Harry grinned.

"Well, I have you too, so I think I'll be okay."

"Yeah, but Padfoot's your _godfather_," Remus pointed out.

"Well yeah, but you pretty much are too. Sirius is just here more often and is more...emotional, where you're more of the practical, responsible, 'talk to me' parent figure."

Remus stared at Harry momentarily, digesting his words, before grabbing him into a hug that Harry returned in confusion.

"Remy, are you okay?" Harry asked, looking up at him as if trying to figure out if he should be concerned.

"I'm...I'm really good actually," he said with a grin.

"Oh no, you've been hanging out with Siri too long, haven't you?"

"Voila!" Sirius announced, carrying in a tray of steaming cups from the kitchen. "I have created tea!"

Remus and Harry warily took the cups they were offered.

"Oh come on, this is good now!" Sirius assured them. "Of course it won't be as good as Harry's tea, but I didn't try anything magical this time so no more explosions...perfectly safe for drinking!"

The two cautiously sipped their tea and were relieved to find that it was fine.

"Yeah? Yeah? I told you!" Sirius said smugly, plopping down in a chair and sipping his own tea.

Sirius and Remus soon began reminiscing about their Hogwarts days, as they often did and Harry succumbed to the pull of sleep.

Sirius lowered his voice and pointed to his sleeping godson. Remus looked down at Harry, whose head was resting on Remus's upper arm.

"Looks like we bored him to sleep," Sirius said with a grin.

"Not hard to do when _you're _doing most of the talking," Remus teased.

Sirius shot a playful glare at his friend.

"I take it you put his medicine in his tea?" Remus guessed.

Sirius nodded. "He wouldn't have taken it otherwise since he knows it puts him to sleep. He's like a little kid, wanting to stay up with the big kids..."

"Or at least one big kid," Remus interjected mischievously.

"Better a big kid than a big...a big..." Sirius scrambled to think of an insult to Remus that wouldn't implicate himself as well.

"That's right, no good comebacks. That's a real shocker," Remus teased.

Sirius laughed.

"I guess we'd better put him to bed," Sirius said, starting to get up.

Remus's head shot up, looking almost alarmed.

"Can't he just stay here for a little while? After all, you said he sleeps better with people near him, right?" Remus said hurriedly.

Sirius caught the almost desperate tone in his best friend's voice and suddenly understood something about Remus he hadn't even given much thought to before.

"Sure. I think Harry would like that," he said, sitting back down. He watched as his friend maneuvered Harry so he was lying down, his head settled on Remus's lap. The werewolf levitated a blanket over to him and affectionately covered Harry with it. He gently removed Harry's glasses and set them on the nightstand.

"Remus, what would you say about moving in with Harry and I?" Sirius asked.

Remus looked up at his friend, taken aback. "Me move in?"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it," he stretched the truth. He _had_ been thinking about it, at least for the past minute or so, "and I would really like it if you moved in. You could have the guest room and do whatever you like with it."

"But you and Harry..." Remus started.

"I think Harry would really like the idea. Besides, I could use your help with him, your advice. I think Harry could really use your help too, when mine's not enough or I'm doing something wrong or I don't know how to help him. He doesn't understand that people love him and it's going to take a lot to change that. He needs to have people who love him around him as much as possible. Besides, I have to start realizing that I can't do this all on my own, as much as I'd like to say I could. You're the one that hasn't screwed up with him. Merlin knows Snape and I have on several occasions, and as much as he loves Molly and Arthur, he's never gone to them for anything and I don't think he ever will."

"Yeah," Remus said sadly, "especially after what Arthur did recently. But I guess even before then, they were too closed off, already having their own family. That's one of Harry's problems, I think. The Dursleys pounded it into him so much that he was intruding on their family and shut him out so much that he feels like he could never be a part of an already formed family, he'd feel like he was intruding."

"See this is why we need you. You can be part of this helter-skelter family we're patching together. Harry needs that. He needs you. You can understand things like this and make these connections that I can't just see like you can. I just don't have experience with the family stuff, and I'm learning but it's going to take time and Harry can't afford to have me screw up again and have nobody to turn to."

"But Sirius, you realize if Harry turns to me for things, the reality is that he may develop a closer relationship with me than you. I'm not saying it's anything personal, but Harry's at a stage where he's testing out all these new familial relationships and he's going to cling to someone, and just by having me here increases the chances that it could be me, just because I'm here, do you see?" Remus said practically.

"I understand, and I want to have a close relationship with Harry, of course, more than anything, but I've realized that it's not as important as Harry's well-being, so if you can help him more than I can and if a relationship with you benefited him more than one with me, then I wouldn't fight you on it," Sirius said gravely. "I don't ever want Harry to be in that dark place he's been in lately again."

"You know that's only a remote possibility, Siri. Harry loves you so much..."

"Remy, I know," Sirius interrupted. "We'll just have to see how things go and do what's best for Harry. Now back to the subject at hand."

Remus looked down at the sleeping boy. He lifted his head again and smiled unsurely at his friend. "Well, I could still keep my house to go to for transformations and to go to once in awhile when you two need bonding time..."

"And I can go there if _you_ and Harry want bonding time," Sirius pointed out. "I mean, we're really both practically his godfathers, it just happens that I have the title because of that legal garbage about werewolves and children, which we both know is a load of crap."

Remus grinned with more happiness than he'd felt in a very long time.

"Do you really think Harry would like that?"

"Hey Har," Sirius called.

"Hmm?" Harry murmured without opening his eyes, still basically asleep.

"What do you think about Remus coming to live with us?" Sirius asked, knowing what Harry's answer would be already.

Harry nodded sleepily against Remus's lap. "Good," he mumbled.

"Alright Har, you can go back to sleep now," Remus said with a light chuckle, running his fingers soothingly through Harry's messy locks, but Harry was already out.

"Well, Harry living with two bachelors isn't exactly a normal home life," Remus mused.

"Yeah, but think of what he had before," Sirius said darkly. "It doesn't matter if it's not conventional parenting as long as we can start fixing all the damage those _relatives_ of his caused."

Remus nodded in agreement. "There's a lot of damage to undo," he commented sadly.

"Which is why he can use all the help he can get."

The two men looked down at the boy they each regarded as a son and then up at each other.

"He'll be fine," Remus said confidently. "Give it time and some work and I really think he's going to be fine."

"I think we're all going to be fine now," Sirius said, taking a sip of tea.

I......................................................................................................I

Sirius landed the motorcycle on the dirt road leading to the Burrow, kicking up a large cloud of dust. Harry grinned and jumped off the bike.

"Whoa, Harry, wait up," Sirius called as Harry began running toward the Burrow.

Harry stopped and spun around. "Hurry up, Padfoot!" Harry said impatiently, "I want to show Ron your motorcycle!"

Sirius chuckled and caught up with his godson, ruffling his hair.

"Siri!" Harry whined, quickly smoothing his hair back into place. Sirius threw an arm around his godson's shoulders and the two walked up to the Burrow together.

Harry bounded up the steps and knocked.

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said fondly as she opened the door, pulling him into a motherly hug. "It's good to see you up and about. You've always been one for quick recoveries. But I still want you to take it a bit easy, all right?"

"All right, Mrs. Weasley. I just wanted to show Ron Sirius's motorcycle. He's here, isn't he?"

"Of course, dear. He's in the kitchen," she said, stepping aside to allow the two into the house.

"Thanks!" Harry said brightly before hurrying to the kitchen. He flung open the door and stilled in shock as a flash went off.

Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Draco (who was holding Anna), Eloise, Neville, and Kota were all standing under a large, homemade banner that read, "Happy Birthday Harry!" shouting, "Surprise!"

"Oh my God," he choked out, taking a step back in shock, bumping into a grinning Sirius who gave him a gentle push forward into the room. He put a hand to his mouth and kept sputtering, "Oh my...oh my God...oh my God..."

"Such a wide range in vocabulary," came a sarcastic voice. Harry quickly looked over to the side of the room to find Snape standing with Laura, Remus and the Stensons, with Mr. Weasley capturing Harry's response on film, snapping pictures continuously.

Harry just looked around in complete shock, jaw hanging and eyes wide.

"But it's not my birthday," he protested breathlessly.

"Well, that's true, but we missed your actual birthday," Hermione said, beaming.

"And we figured this would make a much better surprise," Eloise added.

"I can't believe it. Oh my God," Harry said, just beginning to let everything sink in. "You didn't have to..."

"Harry," Ron interrupted quickly, slinging his arm across Harry's shoulders, "you're our friend. We wanted to give you a party."

"_And,_" George threw in,"since you're honorary Weasley number eight, we're doing it Weasley style."

"Now, this fact might scare you, and it should," said Fred, "but it'll at least be memorable

"We wanted to have Ginny jump out of your birthday cake, but mum was opposed to the idea for some reason," Fred said quietly with an apologetic shrug.

Harry blushed deeply.

"We're going to try turning Snape's hair pink," George whispered into Harry's ear to make sure the Potions master didn't hear. Harry laughed and wished them luck with that.

"Harry, Harry, Harry," Anna shouted, hugging his knees until Harry looked down to acknowledge her. "Up!" she demanded, holding up her arms with a grin. Harry obliged and lifted the little girl up into his arms.

"I made you..." she rustled through her pockets and pulled out a wrinkled, folded piece of paper. "I made you a picture for your birthday!" she said proudly, unfolding the drawing and thrusting the piece of paper too close to his face.

Harry took it with his free hand and held it back to look at it. There were many different colored lines and odd shapes splattered across the page. Across the top of it, there was an H, a triangle, a single backwards R and a humungous Y to show who the picture was for.

"Look! Look! I spelled your name all by myself! Do you like it?" she asked eagerly.

"Oh wow, Anna, it's really lovely, thank you," Harry said, rapidly trying to figure out what it was. He looked up at those around him who were watching him in amusement. Laura looked especially sympathetic, no doubt having had to go through this many times before. Mrs. Weasley was smiling at him fondly, looking strangely wistful.

"What's your favorite part?" Anna asked eagerly.

"Um..." Harry started, trying to make sense out of the strange symbols. "That part," he concluded, randomly pointing to a misshapen, multi-colored blob in the middle of the page.

"Tell me what it is," Anna challenged, looking excitedly at the picture she'd drawn. Harry wondered if Anna even knew.

"Er..." He looked up at Laura desperately but she just shook her head helplessly. "A Bludger?" he guessed hopefully.

"No, silly, that's Miney doing my hair in pigtails, see? There's brown for Miney's hair and there's yellow for my hair." she said as if Harry was being stupid.

Hermione looked over Harry's shoulder at the picture to see Anna's rendition of her and grinned.

"Wow, Anna, that's really good," Hermione said, exchanging an amused look with Harry.

"I know," Anna said boastfully. Everyone looked up at Draco.

"What?" Draco asked indignantly. "If the girl's got talent she doesn't have to pretend to be modest."

Harry, Ginny and Hermione laughed. Anna giggled simply because Harry was laughing and buried her face in his shoulder. Even the Weasleys couldn't help but grin, a sign that they were finally getting to know not to take Draco seriously all the time.

"Come on, birthday boy," Eloise said finally, "let's head out back. We've got something quite interesting to show you. Kota's idea and very interesting."

Harry looked at Kota suspiciously but she only grinned happily.

Laura took Anna and distracted her by giving her to Snape.

The teenagers all ushered Harry outside and to the border of the woods. Just through the trees, Harry could see that they had dug a swimming hole, just like the one near the Lighthouse.

Harry looked back at them curiously but when he saw their mischievous expressions, immediately knew something else was going on.

Suddenly, Fred and George darted forward and grabbed Harry, picking him up between the two and Harry finally realized what they were doing.

He didn't even have time to protest before they tossed him into the swimming hole in all his clothes.

He came up sputtering and glaring at his laughing friends.

"So that was your brilliant idea, Kota?" Harry asked with a roll of the eyes as he treaded water.

"Taste it," she responded with an eager grin.

"Taste what?" Harry asked in confusion. "You mean the water?"

They all nodded.

Harry cautiously scooped up some of the water in his hand and sipped it.

"It's Butterbeer!" he exclaimed in surprise.

Suddenly there were splashes on all sides of him as everyone else started jumping in.

"Is this really Butterbeer?" Harry asked Fred.

"Yup, and we've charmed it to stay clean so it's perfectly safe to drink," he said, flipping onto his back and spitting out a spray of Butterbeer up into the air.

They all began goofing around in the water, but Harry noticed Draco was only sitting on the edge with his feet dangling in.

"Draco..."

"Hell no, Harry," Draco cut him off.

"But Dray..."

He didn't have to finish though because Fred and George popped up near his feet, grabbed his ankles and dragged him in with one tug.

"Ugh!" he exclaimed when he surfaced. "This cannot be sanitary."

He started to get out, but felt someone splash his back. He turned around with a glare and immediately picked out Ron as the culprit, who was sniggering shamelessly.

"Oh I don't think so, Weasley," Draco growled before jumping back in and splashing Ron in the face.

It soon became all out war.

I.................................................................................................I

Later, after having drying spells performed on them all, Harry and Eloise stood watching everyone interact.

Draco was showing the twins his tricks he had learn to deal with high-class society annoyances.

"Okay, when you have to kiss a girl's hand, but she's completely disgusting, you take her hand like this," he said, taking Kota's hand with his thumb resting across the top, "and kiss your own thumb. Even the girl can't tell you didn't kiss her nasty hand."

"Nasty hand?" Kota asked indignantly.

"Not yours," Draco said with a smirk, "more like the girls who you see wiping their noses on the backs of their hands and then hold them out for you to kiss."

"Lovely," Kota said, making a face. George took her hand and practiced Draco's trick, before kissing her hand for real to make sure she knew he didn't find her hand disgusting. "Oh, you're such a gentleman, Mr. Weasley," Kota said in a mock-high-class voice.

"Hey, I can be a gentleman," George insisted, sticking his chest out.

"Right," Kota said with a smirk. "I'll buy that when you pull out my chair for me and let me sit down on it rather than pull it out further to watch me fall on my bum."

George laughed. "That's a great idea, thanks!"

"I told you," Eloise said matter-of-factly to Harry, who had been watching the scene with amusement.

"Told me what exactly?" Harry asked.

"When you first told me you were friends with Malfoy, I told you that something randomly good was going to come out of this friendship with Malfoy. I was right; he saved your life. He helped save Ron's life. I also told you how I believed in karma, good things happening to good people in the end, and look at us all," she said gesturing around the room.

Harry looked around and smiled. She was right. Everything had turned out right in the end.

"Of course, we still have a few love lives to plan out. I think Malfoy's been avoiding me just because I offered him a free love-life consultation."

Harry chuckled.

"Oh, it looks like your love life's coming this way, so I'm going to go talk with Hermione," she said with a grin, before walking over to the bushy-haired girl.

"Hey birthday boy, want to help me get out silverware?" Ginny asked with a mischievous grin.

The two walked into the kitchen and Harry followed Ginny over to the silverware drawer. The two laughed and joked around, making each other lose count of their respective piles of silverware multiple times.

Harry yelped as Ginny poked him in the side with a spoon.

"You know, I'd retaliate, but I don't think it would have the same effect since I'm doing knives," Harry pointed out, holding up the handful of steak knives to show her.

"Yeah, that would just be so cute and romantic if you stabbed me with a steak knife," Ginny laughed.

Harry suddenly looked a little awkward and uncomfortable.

"So, what exactly are we? Are we, um, are we, uh, boyfriend and girlfriend?" he asked quietly and quickly so Ginny could barely make out what he was mumbling as he looked glanced at her with a nervous gaze.

"Well, do you want to be?" Ginny asked slyly, wanting to see Harry blush, which he sure enough did.

"Well, I mean, yeah, if you want to, because you don't have to and you might not want to and that's okay of course because you can change your mind or something and that's fine because it's really up to you but if you..."

Ginny chuckled and playfully pushed Harry up against the counter.

"Of course I want to. I always have, you idiot," she said with a mischievous, loving smile before pressing her lips against his.

It caught Harry by surprise at first, but he quickly relaxed into it, running his hand through her red hair as she buried her hand in his messy raven locks.

"EWWWW!!"

The two immediately broke apart and whipped their heads toward the doorway where Ron was covering his eyes and pretending to gag. Hermione stood next to him with a teary grin.

"Oh, it's about time!" she said happily.

"Ugh, I just saw Ginny snogging!" Ron said in disgust. He looked up at them. "You've got to warn next time or something because that's just disturbing. But 'Mione's right, it's about time!"

Harry and Ginny exchanged embarrassed looks.

"It's about time for what?" asked Fred as he and George paused in their run for more fireworks.

"Harry and Ginny are finally together," Hermione said with a contented sigh. "I've got to go tell Eloise. She's won a bet with Draco," she said before running out.

The twins walked over, grinning. They patted Harry on the back and vigorously shook his hand, much to Harry's mortification.

"Oh, Harry old boy," Fred said, slinging his arm over the emerald-eyed boy's shoulders. "I remember back to when you were a wee lad of eleven. George and I were your guides to the wizarding world..."

"You helped me get my trunk into my compartment," Harry reminded him.

"Yes yes, and you know why, Harry?" Fred asked, somehow sounding a lot like Dumbledore.

"Uhhh..."

"Because we knew," George continued, "that one day, love would conquer all."

Harry looked at him sympathetically. "Kota's been making you watch romance films, hasn't she?"

"Oh yes," George said. "I think she's hoping I'll learn a thing or two."

"And have you?"

"Well, I now know that in some scenarios, Muggles are supposed to express their feelings in random bursts of song, though where the background music comes from, and how everyone else in the vicinity seems to be able to join into the song, along with matching dance moves, I've yet to figure out."

"Now you have fun with our sister, Harry," said Fred.

"But not too much fun," George said. The two wiggled their eyebrows suggestively.

Mrs. Weasley hurried in, oblivious to what had just been going on.

"Come on outside. It's time for dinner!" she said.

"Hey Mum, guess what?" Fred said, shooting a mischievous grin at Harry and Ginny.

Harry's eyes widened and his face turned red, knowing what was coming.

"Harry and Ginny are dating," George informed her happily. "Now what were you saying about dinner?"

Mrs. Weasley gazed at Harry and Ginny, holding her breath, waiting for an indication that it was true.

When neither protested, she gasped in delight. She laughed happily and scooped the two into her arms and hugged them fiercely.

"Oh, that's so wonderful. That's so adorable. Now you really will be like part of the family, Harry!"

"Mum," Ginny muttered embarrassedly, "we're just dating, not getting married."

"Oh, of course. I know, darling," she said, though the look in her eyes informed them that she was thinking differently.

"Mum, leave poor Harry alone and let's feed him," Fred called.

"Right, of course. We need to put some more weight on you, dear. I do hope you like it," she said warmly.

"She worked harder on your birthday dinner and desert than I ever remember her working on any of ours," Ron informed him.

"Yeah, we think you're secretly her favorite," Fred said.

"Oh, you two stop it and help Harry and Ginny carry this silverware," she said before hurrying away, casting a fond smile back at Harry.

Ginny bit her lip and looked at Harry with an apologetic grin.

Harry laughed and gathered up the knives.

I................................................................................................I

Dinner was a fun affair, and Draco quietly admitted to Harry that he too thought Mrs. Weasley's cooking rivaled anything he'd tasted in high-class cuisine.

When the sun went down and dinner was done, Mrs. Weasley levitated out an unbelievably big cake, making it appear that Ginny jumping out of it wasn't such a far-fetched idea after all. Snape, Sirius, and Mr. Weasley carried out presents behind her.

Then, Harry was sung the birthday song for the first time in his life. Needless to say, the whole thing had Harry blushing extremely hard.

When he unwrapped his presents to find all his friends had chipped in to buy him the Lightningstrike 2000, he had been struck speechless as he gazed at the broom in awe. He took it for a zip around the yard and insisted that it was one of the defining moments of his life.

As the twins set up their fireworks, Eloise plopped down next to Harry on the grass.

"I almost forgot to ask you, how did the party go?" Harry asked, referring to the party he'd agreed to talk Neville into going to in return for Eloise's silence over the magazine thing. Of course, he still had no idea of Eloise's slight bit of treachery and was blissfully unaware that the Weasleys had gotten a hold of the magazine despite his efforts.

Eloise laughed. "Well, Neville was a bit nervous."

"Oh no," Harry said, knowing where this was headed.

"Oh yes. He knocked over this huge oriental screen at my aunt's house and it broke into about twenty pieces. That's not to mention the tray of Champaign he knocked into my grandmother and then there was the incident with him telling Mr. Darcy that he was pretty sure my uncle hated his job."

"Well, a lot of people hate their jobs so that's not _that _bad," Harry reasoned.

"Mr. Darcy is my uncle's boss."

"Ooh, ouch," Harry winced. "So do you regret inviting him?"

Eloise grinned. "No way. It was the most exciting one of those parties I've ever been to. My aunt and uncle weren't too fond of him, but my grandmother thinks he was offering her a drink and thinks _she_ knocked the tray. She's a bit senile, but hey, she's rather fond of Neville. And then poor Neville was so upset and embarrassed over it and I had to spend hours reassuring him until we could both laugh about the whole thing." She sighed happily. "It's all exactly the way I wanted it."

"Flawed perfection," Harry found himself saying in vague surprise.

Eloise looked over at him curiously and nodded with a grin. "Yeah. Exactly. Flawed perfection. Isn't it wonderful?"

Harry watched as one of the fireworks Fred and George set off accidentally hit the table, blowing away all the food, causing Kota and Neville to break out in hysterics. Laura's and Snape's hands were folded together discretely under the table as they talked with the rest of the adults. Ron and Draco were bickering about something or other, but with the way Hermione and Ginny were giggling, Harry knew it wasn't a heated argument. Anna scrambled up to Harry as fast as her short legs would carry her and jumped into his lap, giving him a quick sloppy kiss on the cheek before settling in and watching as the twins set up their next firework. Ginny caught his eye and smiled at him before starting over with Hermione, Ron and Draco, the two boys still squabbling.

Harry grinned and let Anna pick up his hand to compare the size to her own.

"Yeah. It really is."

I.................................................................................................I

"Siri! I told you we were going to be late!" Harry laughed as his godfather pulled him along, racing through the train station.

"Well, I wanted to give you a homemade breakfast before you had to leave! Is it my fault the pancakes caught on fire?" Sirius asked, dodging a lady who huffed in exasperation.

"Well, you _were_ the one who wanted to test if pancakes were flammable, so I'd say yes," Harry pointed out.

"Okay, I can't think of a good argument for that, but when I do, I'll owl you," Sirius said as they neared the platform, running straight through it as the train whistle began to sound.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were there, and motioned for them to hurry.

Sirius hugged Harry and said he'd try to visit before he died of boredom all alone at the Lighthouse.

"Oh quick, Harry, the train's going to leave," Mrs. Weasley said hurriedly. She grabbed him into a hug and kissed his cheek before shooing him along. Ron and Hermione opened one of the doors as the train began to move and motioned for Harry to hand them his trunk as he ran along side it down the platform. The two threw it behind them before each grasping one of Harry's arms and pulling him on. Harry turned around and waved to his godfather, for the first time feeling that he was going to _school_, with someplace warmer to return to for the holidays, where somebody would be genuinely happy to see him.

He finally had a loving home and a family, however quirky either might be.

Things couldn't be more perfect.

I............................................................................................I

**A/N: **THE END!!! SORT OF.... Lol, okay so there's still an EPILOGUE, so don't take me off the authors alert list quite yet. After that, I'm going to write a short sequely-thing...just a one-shot, so don't get too excited. It'll jump to their early twenties just to give you guys a glimpse at that. I'm not sure when it'll be out, but hopefully not too long. Also, I'll probably do a deleted scene of Harry talking to Snape and perhaps Sirius's full talk with Harry, since I didn't have time to put any of that in here. If there's anything you guys wanted to see in this fic but didn't, just email me or put it in a review and I'll write it and post it on my yahoo group. I'm looking for things to write for contest prizes so I'm open to ideas. Okay, my sis just got asked to prom by a guy she doesn't want to go with, so I have to go do girl talk. Please review?????


	27. Epilogue: New Begninnings

**Author's Note: **Er... I got nothing actually. Just read the stuff at the end. Very important.

I..............................................................................................I

It was June of Harry's sixth year and everyone was cramming for end of the year exams, wishing that summer would hurry up and arrive.

Ginny was standing in the hall talking to Hermione and Eloise when suddenly, she felt arms wrap around her, but couldn't see anything. She jumped and let out a small scream of surprise before turning around with an evil grin. She grabbed the front of Harry's invisibility cloak and lifted it up to expose her laughing boyfriend. She gave him a mischievous look before pushing him up against a wall, letting the invisibility cloak fall over the pair of them.

Hermione and Eloise exchanged a look as they heard a lot of hushed laughing and sounds of kissing. They both rolled their eyes while secretly thinking how adorable it was.

"Alright you two," Hermione called to the invisible pair, "if you want to walk with us to dinner, you'd better come on because we're not going to wait."

The two appeared seemingly out of thin air and Harry stuffed his cloak into his book bag.

"How are O.W.L.s going, Ginny?" Eloise asked.

Ginny made gagging sounds before finding herself under Hermione's stern gaze. She smiled happily.

"I'm almost positive I got an O in Muggle Studies at least," she said excitedly, giving Harry a thankful smile. He'd continued tutoring her in the subject all year, with a few trips to the Stensons' new house to help.

"I'm a little worried about the Advanced Potions exam I just took. Does anyone know what ingredient would neutralize basilisk venom?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Willow bark," Harry and Eloise answered at the same time, exchanging grins. Snape had insisted Harry and Draco come to him for tutoring at least once a week, either to clarify what he'd already taught, or prepare them for what he was going to teach. Harry had, in turn, continued to tutor Ron, Eloise, and Neville, with Hermione and Draco joining them for study groups or when Harry was unavailable for tutoring.

The "Hated by Snape" club had disappeared and though its three original members couldn't exactly say they loved Potions, the experience had greatly improved along with their understanding of it.

It all worked out well. Harry would tutor in Potions and Defense, Hermione would tutor in Transfiguration, Eloise in Charms, Neville in Herbology, with everyone else pitching in where they could.

Ron worked harder in school that year than he ever had before, determined to become a healer. Harry found his friend working even harder each time Harry checked back into the Hospital Wing. He didn't get sick that often, but his immune system did have a harder time fighting things so he came down with illnesses more than he used to. Thankfully, it was never anything too bad and he was always back on his feet, running around sooner than Madam Pomfrey approved of.

"Good," Hermione said uncertainly, trying to remember back to the exam, "I'm pretty sure that's what I put."

"So Harry, how much you want to bet you get the highest Defense score?" Eloise said with a grin. Harry blushed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not _that _good in Defense. I just enjoy it more than others," Harry said modestly. Everyone else rolled their eyes.

"Harry, face it," Hermione said with a smile, "you are amazing at Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Yeah, Har, you must come to grips with the fact," Ginny said in a psychiatrist-like voice, poking Harry in the side to see his nose scrunch up in that cute way it did every time he was tickled.

The four ran into Draco on the way in.

"Hey Dray," Harry greeted. "Are we sitting Slytherin or Gryffindor today?"

"We're sitting Hufflepuff tomorrow," Eloise said firmly. "No excuses about them not accepting Slytherins because you know everyone's been fine with you sitting there with me and I miss my table."

"Okay Eloise, don't get your knickers in a twist," Draco said with a smirk. Eloise made a face at him and the blonde chuckled. "We're sitting Gryff since we sat Sly yesterday. At least that's where Blaise and Ron said they'd meet us."

Harry remembered back to September 1st of that year with a grin.

_Draco had gone ahead to Hogwarts early with Snape to avoid any conflicts on the train. Harry had walked in to find him sitting at the Slytherin table with the other Slytherins who had sat down either casting mean looks over at him or ignoring him all together. _

_Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table as necessary for the Sorting and beginning speeches, but when the food came, he filled up his plate and said goodbye to his friends, who already knew what he was going to do. _

_Everyone in the hall watched with curiosity as Harry walked from the Gryffindor table over to the Slytherin one, almost everyone believing a fight was going to break out._

_Therefore, the majority of the student body, the ghosts, and part of the staff were very shocked to hear Harry simply ask Draco if he could squeeze in, ignoring the fact that there was plenty of room. They all nearly had heart attacks when Draco let him and the two started talking amicably, but settled for staring in shock. _

_Charles Crabbe immediately grabbed his friends and they followed him over to where Harry was sitting, sliding in next to him. He stuck his tongue out at his older brother who was making menacing gestures toward him and asked Harry and Draco about their summers before turning to his own friends, leaving the two sixth years to talk._

_The two looked up in surprise to see Blaise Zabini carry his plate over from the other end of the table and sit gracefully down facing the two. _

"_Sorry, my brother was just sorted so I had to make sure he settled in with the other first years. I wanted to owl you this summer, Draco, but my family went on a cruise and there weren't any owls I could use. Anyway, I wanted you to know I'm on your side, screw what those imbeciles think," he said, jutting his thumb over at Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, and Nott who all scowled back. _

"_Thanks, Zabini," Draco said in surprise. _

"_Don't be stupid, Draco, call me Blaise. I hear your last name's Snape now, but there's no way I can call you that without it just being too strange and confusing. So, er, what are you doing here, Potter?" he asked. It wasn't a cruel comment, just slightly suspicious._

"_Call me Harry," Harry said, reaching his hand across the table. "Draco and I put all the stupid house rivalry crap behind us and became friends over summer."_

_Blaise hesitated, but then shook his hand firmly. "Well, that's certainly unexpected."_

_Draco and Harry chuckled and Blaise looked at the blonde curiously._

"_Well, it looks like you've changed a bit, Draco. I don't think I've ever seen you laugh like that before. Thank Merlin you're actually human. I was seriously doubting it before now."_

_Draco feigned offense. "Human? Please. I rank deity at least."_

"_Millicent!" the three heard Pansy shriek indignantly. They looked up to see Millicent Bullstrode brushing Pansy off. She came over and sat next to Blaise._

"_Ugh, I hate her," she said with a roll of the eyes. "So, Potter, I heard you beat the shit out of Theo."_

"_Nott? Er...yeah, we got into a bit of a fight, but..." he started to defend himself, but Millicent cut him off._

"_Then I already like you. That guy is so irritating. I'm glad to hear you knocked him off the little pedestal he's placed him self on. And you seem to have done similar for Draco, though Draco has seemed to improve while Nott remains his insufferable self," she continued._

_Harry grinned while Draco sputtered indignantly. _

"_I was not..."_

"_You were," Millicent said quickly, cutting Draco off. "But seeing what you did at the end of last year made me think you might have some sort of personality and conviction in there, and as long as you don't ever call me gorilla girl again, I'm on your side in this. Potter, I'm still not sure about you, but we'll see."_

_Harry grinned. "Call me Harry and I guess we'll see," he said, shaking her hand._

"_So, Harry, what's your Quidditch team?" Blaise asked hopefully._

"_Well, I'm not really fanatical about one team, though I like players on several different teams. I'd probably say the Meteorites though, because of their Seeker," Harry said thoughtfully as he chewed on a roll._

"_Damn, why can't I find one person who likes the Chudley Cannons?" Blaise asked disappointedly. _

_Draco and Harry both stilled and looked at him. _

"_My friend Ron's insane about the Chudley Cannons," Harry said._

"_Weasley? No way," Blaise said, sounding a bit excited. _

_Harry called for Ron and motioned for him to come over. The redhead approached the table with extreme caution, looking very doubtful about the whole thing...until he found out Blaise was just about as fanatical about the Cannons as he was. He instantly ran back to Gryffindor to grab his plate before settling in next to Blaise to talk Quidditch. _

They soon found that Millicent got on very well with Eloise, both having been made fun of for their looks before. Now the other students were used to them sitting at each other's tables and though the two houses were a bit wary at first, as the year went on, more and more started intermixing at meal times as they began to accept the others as fellow students rather than look at them as the enemy.

Though house rivalries still existed, Harry and Draco's friendship had really been a big step toward breaking them down, or at least making them less violent.

The five sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Poor Sev," Harry said with a chuckle, looking up at the staff table. Snape looked tired and a bit frazzled to those who knew him. He was eating with one hand and holding a book about end-of-term pregnancy and newborns in the other, eyes focused on the words. Harry spotted the gold wedding band on his finger. He and Laura had eloped at the end of summer, a fact that still made Eloise giggle gleefully.

"George says Kota's still singing 'The Circle of Life' every time the subject gets brought up," Ginny said.

"I still can't believe he's having a kid," Ron said in disbelief. "I mean, Professor Snape rocking a baby to sleep just isn't an image that comes naturally."

"Rocking a baby? What about changing a diaper?" Draco asked, making a face. "He's gotten used to Anna's messes, but this is a bit of a different story."

"He'll do fine. He's great with Anna and he's so excited, even if he doesn't show it," Harry said. "Plus he's read practically every book in existence on the subject."

"And that's a really good way to prepare for anything," Hermione commented seriously. Everyone chuckled. "What?" she asked indignantly.

"You know, he actually gave points to Hufflepuff yesterday. He must be happy," Eloise said.

"Or too distracted to realize what he's doing," Ginny pointed out.

"You know, the thing about it that I can't truly believe," said Ron quietly, making the others lean in to hear him, "is that in order for Laura to be pregnant, she and Professor Snape must've..." He trailed off, nodding suggestively.

All of their heads snapped to the staff table before turning back to the center and there was a resounding, "Ewww."

"Merlin's beard, Ron," Draco groaned. "Please, I don't need these sort of pictures. Oh sick, get out of my head."

"Have either of you actually seen them kissing?" Neville asked curiously.

Harry and Draco nodded.

"It's disturbing," they both said simultaneously.

"You know, Professor Snape's not that bad," Millicent mused, looking up at the staff table thoughtfully. "He's got that whole dark and mysterious thing going on."

"Yeah, he's actually kind of sexy," Hermione said mischievously.

"Oh I've had many a fantasy about detention in Potions," Ginny said with a nod.

The boys all looked at them in abject horror.

Ginny laughed and gave Harry's hand a squeeze. "We're just kidding."

"I'm not," Millicent interjected.

"Actually, he is quite dishy," Lavender butted into the conversation.

"He's got delicate hands," Parvati said seriously. The boys looked at her as if she'd grown another head but she ignored them. "And the _cutest_ thing ever: I was in detention and he was grading papers and his wife and stepdaughter came, both adorable by the way, and he actually smiled and looked excited. He even picked up his stepdaughter and he promised he'd hang a picture she'd drawn for him in his office."

"Aww, that is so sweet!" Eloise exclaimed with a dreamy look on her face. All the girls seemed to agree, getting those strange looks on their faces that let the boys know this was a very "cute" thing that they may be expected to do in the future.

"His office is covered in them. That's why he doesn't let most students in there. He doesn't want to let people have any reason to be less intimidated of him and pictures of stick figures holding hands under rainbows doesn't exactly get across the message of fear," Harry confided. He enjoyed trying to get people to see there was another side to Snape, though most still refused to believe it.

"Rainbows and stick figures holding hands? Draco, you've been drawing pictures for your godfather again? That's so cute," Blaise teased.

Draco scowled and threw a spoonful of peas at the Slytherin as everyone laughed.

"Draco is a budding artist, don't tease, Blaise," Harry joked, slinging his arm over the blonde's shoulder, who made a face at him and pushed it off, threatening to dump soup into Harry's lap.

"Mum says it should be any day now," Ron said through a mouthful of food.

Mrs. Weasley had been helping Laura through the pregnancy. She had gotten really excited about he whole thing, and of course, had a lot of experience. During the last few months, Laura had basically moved into the Burrow with Anna, though they had a house near Hogsmeade where they went on the weekends when Snape came home.

"If it cries too much, though, I'm moving into the Lighthouse with you, Harry," Draco said warningly.

"I've already moved in an extra bed," Harry informed him. They'd already talked about this throughout the year and it had taken a lot of assurances on Harry's part to make sure Draco knew he was welcome at the Lighthouse anytime, as long as he didn't mind sharing a room with him and Ron, when the redhead was staying over. He'd also had a talk with Ron to make sure he was okay with the whole thing and wasn't jealous. Harry made sure to let Ron know that he would always be Harry's best friend, but Ron assured him that the conversation wasn't necessary. He already knew.

Harry had opened up a bit to his friends during the year. It started with Ron, who had gotten Neville to keep the other boys out of the dorm for a while and had proceeded to bring up what he'd witnessed in the Nightmare Chamber. He brought up Harry's worries about Sirius along with what happened at the Dursleys'.

Harry had screamed and yelled and tried to get out, but Ron stood firm until Harry broke down into tears and let out a lot of what he'd pent up for so long, especially with the frustrating fears about Sirius turning into the type of guardian his uncle had been that Harry could never bring up with his godfather. Now, the two would make sure to find alone time to just talk about things every once in awhile. Ron realized he couldn't just interrogate Harry all the time, and confided some of his own self-doubts with his friend as well. They'd helped each other a lot and their friendship had grown even tighter in the process.

Draco had also become a confidant of Harry's. The two could talk about their families and get a better understanding from the other than they could from anyone else. Draco still had issues about killing his father, but Harry helped him through the bad times.

Hermione was the one Harry went to for practical advice. She was always there to try to analyze the problem and make a plan of action to solve it. She could almost always cut right to the source of the issue, often even when Harry didn't know what it was. Sometimes she knew just what to say to make Harry feel better, unlike anyone else could really do.

Ginny was always there to talk to, but Harry usually just fed off her silent support. When something was bothering him, Ginny was the one he could go to when he just didn't feel like talking about it. Ginny could tolerate not knowing, not curing. She could stand to simply sit there for hours with him in silence, just being there for him, and sometimes giving him very heavenly massages.

All his friends helped him in their own ways. The famous trio still stood strong, but they were part of a larger group now full of its own tighter relationships among it. Harry would never confide in Blaise, just as Draco would never confide in Eloise, but they all enjoyed being in each other's company and they all had someone they could go to for the deeper things.

Snape also made it clear to Harry that he was there, and Harry found it was often the Potions master he'd go to, especially when he felt he'd made a mistake of some sort. There were things he'd go to Remus or Sirius for and some things he went to Snape for and didn't really question the difference. He guessed it was mostly because they'd both been in a dark place at one point in their lives, and had each helped the other out of it. Snape seemed to _need_ Harry a lot of the time, and often pulled him off after class to ask his advice about things. It made Harry feel important, and he really liked that feeling.

He still remembered how nervous he was the first time he went to Snape to talk. They had still been getting over some of the rifts created the summer before, so it had been a big step.

_Harry slowly walked down to the dungeons, not really thinking about where he was going, but when the temperature began to drop and his footsteps echoed more noticeably, he realized where he was and why he was there. He took a deep breath and forced himself to keep going. When he got to the door to Snape's office, he stood there debating with himself for a long time. He actually began walking away before he decisively turned back and with a deep breath, knocked hesitantly at the door. _

_Nobody answered._

"_Harry?" came a voice from behind, causing Harry to jump._

"_Er, hi Professor," Harry muttered embarrassedly. _

"_We're not in class; you can call me Sev," Snape reminded him again._

"_Oh yeah, right."_

"_Did you want to talk to me about something?" Snape asked with the slightest tinge of hope in his voice._

"_Oh, um, well, I was just...I thought you might just not be doing anything but it's your free time so I'll just..."_

"_Harry, of course I have time for you," Snape said, unlocking his office door and leading Harry through. Snape sat down in his desk chair and Harry awkwardly took his place in the chair facing it. "So what is it you wanted to talk about?"_

_Harry looked down at his hands and fidgeted uncomfortably. "I was just wondering, well, you know when we were talking about flawed perfection and about the bad place people get stuck in, and well I know you've said before that you were in that place, right?"_

"_Yes, I was in that place for a very long time," Snape said, pushing away his discomfort with the topic and letting Harry get to what he was trying to say._

_Harry nodded and continued. "Well, I was just wondering if you ever feel like, I don't know, like you want to go back, or maybe not _want_ to but are at the edge of it maybe? I mean, just hypothetically."_

_Snape immediately grew worried but made sure not to let it show. "Of course. I think once you've been there, especially so soon after getting out, it's easier to slip back. I've had some close calls and have slipped back in a few times since then, but I got out again pretty quickly," he admitted. He mentally crossed his fingers and pushed back a little. "Do you ever feel that way?"_

_Harry sighed and nodded, still not looking at him._

_Snape conjured up some tea and slid Harry over a cup. The Gryffindor took it with a grateful smile and sipped it to calm his nerves a bit. _

"_Have you been feeling that way at all lately? Did something happen?" Snape probed a bit further._

_Harry shrugged. "Well, I was at Kota's house last weekend for her birthday, my Muggle friend that was at my birthday, and the telly was on...do you know what that is?" _

_Snape nodded even if he only had a vague idea._

"_Anyways, there was this thing on, a talk show. Nobody was really watching it but I was in the room and it was about this guy who was older and he'd been, um, abused by his dad and he was saying he has all these violent tendencies and that when his kids misbehave he has to restrain himself from hitting them. I guess it's kind of stupid to get upset over something like a talk show, but I just couldn't help but think that might be me in the future."_

"_Harry, I was a spy for a great deal of my life and if there's one thing I learned how to do, it's how to judge character. I was trained to observe people and determine things about them, especially if they had the potential to be violent or not. That is one thing I've never gotten wrong when judging someone and I can assure you that you don't fit into that category."_

"_But what if..."_

"_Harry, listen to me. You know yourself better than anyone. Have you ever felt like you wanted to hit Anna?" _

"_No," Harry said, still unconvinced._

"_Have you ever wanted to physically hurt someone who didn't deserve it or who was significantly weaker than you?" _

"_No," he said unsurely, trying to wrack his brain to make sure there were no incidents of that. _

"_Harry, stop doing this to yourself. I understand why you'd be worried about something like this, but you do not have that in you. If I even detected the slightest hint of that in you, I would never have placed Anna in your care and I feel completely safe doing that," Snape assured him. _

_Harry finally looked him in the eye. "Thank you," he said sincerely. _

"_You know, Harry, I'm not sure if I ever made it clear that I realize you're the one who pulled me out of my own dark place," Snape said with great difficulty, still unused to expressing such emotion._

_Harry blushed. "I didn't..."_

"_Yes you did," Snape cut him off firmly. "It was you. And then you went and made sure I didn't slip back in."_

_Harry looked at him skeptically. "How did I do that? You were mad at me half the summer."_

"_I wasn't mad at you, Harry, I was just confused about a lot of things. I took out a lot of my frustrations on you because I was so used to doing so, I guess," Snape admitted regretfully._

_Harry snorted. "I must have some huge sign on me somewhere that just says 'abuse me', huh?" he muttered before looking embarrassed at the words that had slipped out of his mouth. "Not that I'm implying that you..."_

"_No, I deserve that. I am sorry for what I did to you, Harry. I hope you know that. I'm sorry for how I treated you since you were eleven, but I'm especially sorry for what I did to you this summer. I was a bastard."_

_Harry's jaw dropped at the statement and the shocked look on his face was comical enough for the Potion's master to crack a smile. _

"_Well that was unexpected," Harry muttered with a smirk once he regained his senses. _

"_And sadly, no one will ever believe you."_

"_Hmm...I'll have to get a pensieve at some point and show that to all the Potions classes," Harry joked._

"_I still know how to make thousands of potions with very embarrassing side effects," Snape threatened lightly. _

_Harry cracked a grin. _

_Snape mentally sighed before venturing into darker territory. "Have you heard from your relatives lately?"_

_Harry's grin melted instantly. "Er, yeah, just the usual letter from Aunt Petunia going on about how I'm a disgrace and how I should burn in Hell and all that fun stuff," he said, trying to pass it off lightly. "Don't tell Sirius or Remus though. Sirius would freak if he heard and overreact, and Remus, I don't know, I just don't want him to know. I guess he just wouldn't understand. I met his parents, you know. They're really nice and really...parent-y. I think they love him even more because he's a werewolf, which is just...great...really great," he said sincerely but with a tinge of sadness to his voice._

"_Not the type to go shutting children in cupboards," Snape commented._

_Harry snorted. "Nope. Not likely. No throwing through glass tables either and I doubt there were many stabbings involved in their family gatherings," he said bitterly, though he tried to pass it off as joking._

"_No mandatory lessons in dark magic or Death Eater initiations," Snape put in. Harry didn't miss the fact that he was referring to his own childhood. _

"_Or endless chores or days without food," he added with a sigh._

"_Or screaming parents or impossible standards or looks of shame," Snape added._

"_Wow, we're a couple of bright rays of sunshine, huh?" Harry laughed dryly. _

"_Everyone needs to vent sometimes," Snape said thoughtfully, taking a sip of his tea. "We have a problem in that because we're not quite the open type. We're too closed off for our own good."_

"_Don't you talk to Laura?" Harry asked._

"_Yes, but I must admit I generally avoid such topics of conversation. As you were saying, it's difficult to talk about that sort of thing to someone who couldn't really understand. Maybe one day, but I think it's better to begin talking about the hard stuff with someone who understands," Snape said carefully, hoping Harry would take the bait._

_Harry swirled the tea in his cup around thoughtfully. _

"_What about Draco? You could talk to him. Maybe you could help each other because you two had such similar childhoods it seems with the whole Death Eater parent thing," Harry suggested._

_Snape sighed inwardly. "Draco and I do talk but I'd like to have talks with you as well."_

_Harry looked up at him doubtfully. "Why?"_

_Snape resisted banging his head against the desk. "Because you're important to me, Harry," he said with great difficulty. "Because you're the one that pulled me out of that dark place. This time I want to actually get to know you and that's part of who you are."_

"_I don't want that to be part of who I am," Harry muttered._

"_I know, but you can't escape the past. We both have the marks to prove it," he said, tapping on his forearm where his Dark Mark was concealed by his robes. "How about we make it a thing, this whole talking business," he said awkwardly, having never been good at this sort of thing._

_Harry blinked up at him in confusion. "Erm, okay."_

"_Maybe, every Monday and Thursday you could come after dinner?" he said unsurely, surprising himself. He usually made sure to make statements of such things, not questions. "It could always be changed later of course."_

"_Are you sure? Aren't you busy or something?" Harry asked fidgeting with the hem of his robes. _

"_There are very few people who I'll always make sure to have time for, Harry, and you're one of them," Snape said firmly, trying to make Harry see how much he was determined to fix the damage he'd done and how much he wanted to have Harry around._

"_Thanks, Professor," Harry said genuinely._

"_Sev," Snape corrected. _

"_Oh, right," Harry said with a nod. _

And they had talked. Some days they just talked about inane gossip around the school or what had gone on that week. Sometimes Harry would come in with humorous stories, always trying to make the Potions master laugh, which he began to do more and more. Other times they talked about darker things, periods of their life they usually kept hidden. It was good for them both though neither would admit it out loud.

They both found it amusing that people still weren't quite used to their new relationship. It had been the first day of Potions class that had really shocked people. Harry chuckled whenever he thought back on it.

_Snape stormed into the classroom, robes billowing menacingly as usual. _

"_I do hope you all are finished congratulating yourselves on being slightly less moronic than the rest of the students in your year for making it into this class. There are some of you who show promise, and others that only got into this class by some miracle. This year will be much more difficult than previous ones and I expect you all to try harder than you have in the past. I expect nothing less than the best," he said ominously. _

_While the rest of the students paled slightly or shifted nervously in their seats, Draco smirked in amusement and Harry kept his eyes on his desk to keep himself from laughing. _

_When they partnered up, Harry discovered the reason Draco had helped so much in getting Ron into Advanced Potions and had to admit it had been very sly._

"_You're going to be my partner of course," the blonde had informed him when Snape told them to pair off. "Granger's got Weasley. Funny how that worked out," he said with a knowing smirk that suddenly made Harry realize why Draco had been so eager to help Ron get into Advanced Potions._

_Since they'd already gone over the potion during the summer, the two chatted quietly while they worked. Suddenly, a cauldron exploded behind them where Pansy and Nott were working. Harry turned around to see the pair shooting him glares._

"_Professor! Potter threw something into our cauldron! He sabotaged our potion!" Pansy cried._

"_I did not!" Harry said incredulously. "Professor..."_

_Snape put a hand up to silence him. Nott and Pansy grinned evilly behind their professor before Snape whirled around to face them._

"_Miss Parkinson. Do you mean to tell me that Mr. Potter somehow left his body, leaving it animated and speaking to his lab partner, and possessed your body just to throw a dung bomb into your cauldron before returning to his own body to feign innocence? Is that your story?" Snape asked with a sneer._

"_N-no, sir, he..."_

"_Well, that's funny since I saw your hand dropping the dung bomb into your cauldron."_

"_It wasn't..." she protested._

"_Are you insulting my intelligence, Miss Parkinson?" he asked menacingly._

"_No sir," she said quietly, looking very confused._

"_Do not lie to me ever again or I will have you out of this class faster than you can make an excuse, do you understand?" Snape said coldly._

"_Yes sir," she muttered._

"_Detention for the week and ten points from Slytherin for being idiotic enough to sabotage your own cauldron," he said before addressing the whole class. "We are working with delicate potions in this class. It is not a joke or a game. I am forced to presume that those in this class have enough maturity to handle it. There will be no pranks or horsing around, am I understood?"_

"_Yes sir," the class responded._

"_Good," he said sharply before going around and telling people what they were doing wrong. _

_When he got to Harry and Draco's potion, he nodded in approval. _

"_Excellent work," he said with a masked expression. _

_The whole class nearly choked, though they thankfully didn't or Snape might have been inclined to take points out of annoyance._

He refused to demonstrate blatant favoritism toward the two in class, but did compliment their work when credit was due and no longer yelled at Harry. He still leaned toward his own students and was reluctant to take points off the Slytherin house, but no longer needed to feel pressured by his supposed allegiance to Voldemort, making things much more pleasant for students from other houses.

"Oh, Draco, when do we get to come and see the baby?" Eloise asked hopefully. Millicent nodded eagerly.

Draco groaned. The girls had been bugging him about it for ages. "When Sev says it's okay. But don't make Anna feel left out. I don't need her acting out in jealous rage," he said sternly. "She'd probably burn the house down or something, little pyro that she is." Harry hid a grin, knowing how protective Draco was of the little girl.

"We won't," Eloise said excitedly. "I happen to find Anna adorable as well."

"Let's hope the baby has dark hair though, because Professor Snape looks a bit out of place with all the blondes," Neville said.

"That's why we have Harry around," Draco joked, "to keep Sev from feeling too overpowered by us gorgeous blondes."

"I somehow feel like I should be insulted by that comment," Harry commented.

"Don't be, Har, you're definitely bloody gorgeous," Ginny said, squeezing his hand. "And don't you dare call me delusional or I will hurt you." Ginny was the only one who felt comfortable making these sorts of comments to Harry, and Harry never took them the wrong way.

Harry just smiled shyly and kissed her on the cheek, making him blush far more than her, which she of course found adorable. She met his eyes mischievously.

"Mm, Harry and I are going to go study. We'll see you all later."

Harry, of course, was oblivious as always.

"Are we doing Muggle Studies?" he asked.

"Um, more the study of wizards who grew up with Muggles," she said, making the rest of the group either chuckle or roll their eyes, not needing to know Ginny's plan to "study" her boyfriend.

"Oh," Harry said dumbly, "is that for your Muggle Studies class?"

Ginny just laughed and took his hand in hers. "Harry, this is why I adore you so much."

The two said their farewells before they walked out from the dining halls, laughing with each other.

"Aw, that's so cute. Harry has absolutely no idea he's about to get snogged silly by Ginny," Millicent said.

"Thank you, Millicent," Ron muttered sarcastically, not too keen on the image of his sister snogging anyone.

"I'm just glad they're happy," Hermione said, watching as the pair left. Everyone knew she really meant she was glad Ginny was making Harry so happy. All those who knew him well had a bit of a protective instinct for him and seeing him truly laugh and smile, especially after the previous summer, made them all happy.

They weren't naïve. They knew Harry still had his problems, his dark days, his doubts, but they were all there for him now to make sure they weren't the norm, just as he was there for them with their own problems.

Everyone had their dark days really, though they dwelled on different things during them. But they now had people to stand by them during these days, and that was worth everything.

I.....................I

That night, Harry was jerked awake to someone hissing his name frantically and shaking his shoulders.

Harry's eyes flew open to find Snape practically pulling him from the bed, looking completely frenzied.

"Wha'?" he muttered as Snape pulled him over to his dresser and yanked open one of the drawers, grabbing a pair of pants and a shirt and stuffing them in a bag.

"It's time!" he said in a panicked voice.

"Time for what?" Harry asked groggily. The other boys began waking up.

"Whas go on?" Seamus murmured, peering sleepily through his curtains.

"Laura. Baby. Now," Snape managed to get out, thrusting Harry's shoes at him and grabbing his cloak.

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed, waking up fully and running after Snape as the man pulled him out of the door and down the stairs. Draco was waiting at the bottom, looking excited and shifting from one foot to the next.

"Come on!" he called impatiently.

"Wait, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to tell the headmaster you're going to be out for a few days or..." he trailed off, confused at to why he'd been called out of bed.

"Don't be an idiot, Harry, you're coming with us," Snape said, hurrying to the portrait.

Harry stopped, looking at Snape in surprise. "With you? But why? I mean, this is a family thing. You don't have to..."

"Harry!" Snape exclaimed, doubling back and taking hold of Harry's arm and pulling him along. "You're coming. I want you there and so does Laura. Now come on!"

Harry grinned excitedly and followed him out of the common room.

The three raced through the dark halls toward Dumbledore's office, Harry still holding his shoes in his hands. Snape shouted the password at the gargoyle and the three raced passed, up the moving staircase.

Dumbledore was waiting at his office door with a twinkle in his eye, gesturing them through.

"Good luck, Severus," he said warmly before the three flooed off to the hospital.

The two boys followed Snape up to the maternity ward and found Mrs. Weasley pacing in the hall while Anna was twirling in circles. She caught sight of them and threw her arms up in the air.

"Finally! Thank Merlin you're here. Severus, she's in here, and hurry. She's nearly ready to deliver," she said, leading him into a delivery room. As the door opened, the two boys heard Laura's voice screaming out.

"SEVERUS! Where the hell were you? AHHHH! Oh Merlin, I hate you for this! Damn you, you bloody..."

The door closed, cutting off the sound. The two boys and Anna all looked at each other in surprise at Laura's welcoming words for her husband.

Anna ran over to them and hugged their legs, one for each boy so Draco and Harry were a bit stuck together. She looked up at them with a big grin.

"Am I going to have a little brother or a little sister?" she asked.

"We don't know yet, Anna. Sev and Laura wanted it to be a surprise, remember?" Draco explained for the umpteenth time.

Draco pried her arms from around their legs, allowing the two boys to plop down on a couch in the hall. Anna scrambled up onto Draco's lap and then jumped playfully over to Harry's.

She took Harry's face in her hands and put her eyes really close to his, giggling madly.

Suddenly she sat back with a frown. "Are Mummy and Daddy going to forget about me when they have a baby?" she asked worriedly. She had suddenly begun referring to Sev as her father once Laura and Snape got married.

"Never in a billion years could they forget about you," Harry reassured her.

Draco murmured something about being too noisy to forget about.

"They'll love you just as much as they love the new baby," Harry continued, casting a meaningful look at Draco to let him know he was included in that statement as well. Draco rolled his eyes, but looked slightly more relaxed.

"And _I _get to be a big sister, right? Just like you and Draco are my big brothers, right?" she asked proudly.

"Well, Draco's your big brother. I'm..." Harry began to protest, but Draco cut him off.

"Yes, just like Harry and I are your big brothers," he said firmly. "But, of course, I'm the cool, good-looking older brother."

"You're the funny brother, Draco, with pretty hair," Anna said matter-of-factly. "Daddy's funny, but he does not have pretty hair. Harry's nice and has goofy hair."

Draco laughed and Harry shot him a glare, smoothing his hand over his messy, black locks.

The three sat there anxiously for what seemed like hours until the door opened to let a few healers out. Mrs. Weasley poked out her head and motioned for the three to come in.

"I'm going now," she said, giving them each a hug. Draco still looked a bit put out whenever Mrs. Weasley hugged him, but Harry got a kick out of it. Anna loved Mrs. Weasley's hugs and always milked them for all they were worth. "Congratulations, you two," she said to Draco and Anna with a warm smile before letting them through and leaving.

Laura was sitting up in bed, soaked in sweat but beaming with joy. Snape was looking down in awe at the bundle in his arms that he was holding. He kept looking up at Laura with a huge, disbelieving smile that Harry had never seen before on the Potion's master. He had never seen Snape looking so deliriously happy.

Anna immediately raced over and scrambled up onto Laura's bed, trying to stand on it to get a look at the baby. Draco and Harry started over, but the healer in the room stopped Harry.

"Sorry, family only," he said firmly. "You'll have to wait outside."

Harry's face went a bit red with embarrassment and he started ducking out of the room, but Draco grabbed his arm.

"He is family, you incompetent..."

"Draco," Harry hissed to get the blonde to be quiet.

"They're family. They're my godsons," Snape said in his no nonsense tone, leaving no trace of the fact that he was stretching the truth a bit.

The healer rolled his eyes and let Harry through, sarcastically muttering something about being sure that he was the godfather of Harry Potter as he left the room.

Draco and Harry walked over to look at the baby. It was tiny and on its head was just the hint of blonde fuzz, but Snape didn't seem to mind.

"It's a boy," Laura said with a tearful smile. "His name is Aden. He's so beautiful, isn't he?"

"A boy?" Anna said, making a face. "We already have enough boys. Can we trade it for a girl?"

Everyone laughed and Laura grabbed her daughter, pulling her into a hug.

Harry watched as Snape gently placed Aden into his godson's arms. Draco looked very awkward holding the baby, but he smirked at the small child.

"Blonde, good; you're off to a good start, kid. You'll be in Slytherin, of course, and I'll have to make sure you know how to do your hair well, because, let's face it, your father is not one for gorgeous hair like mine. Plus, I'll make sure you're the coolest kid in the school when you get there, just like me," he said with a smirk.

Harry and Snape rolled their eyes.

"You do have pretty hair, Draco," Anna chirped.

"I know," Draco responded with a smug expression.

"Better watch it, Anna, you might make his ego expand until his head explodes," Harry said, grinning at Draco's subsequent glare.

"Alright, Draco, let Harry have a turn holding him," Snape instructed his godson who turned to transfer the small bundle to Harry's arms, but the Gryffindor froze.

"Me?" Harry said warily. "Are you sure about that?"

"Harry, if I can do it, you can," Draco said, the encouragement in the statement hidden beneath a layer of sarcasm.

"Harry, I trust you," Snape assured him. "It'll be fine."

Laura nodded in agreement.

Harry grinned excitedly as Draco helped maneuver the tiny baby into Harry's arms.

"Hey Aden," he said softly, "I'm Harry. I definitely can't give you tips on hair, but I can teach you to make a grilled cheese sandwich, how does that sound?" The infant made a noise somewhere in between a squawk and a screech. Everyone chuckled. "Okay then, I'll take that as a yes."

"Harry, will you teach _me_ to make a grilled cheese sandwich?" Anna asked hopefully.

"Of course, Anna," Harry assured her.

"When? When?" she asked excitedly.

"Not until you're a little older," her mother jutted in. "Five is not old enough to be around a stove."

Snape caught Harry's eye and gave him a meaningful look, which Harry acknowledged with a nod before looking back down at Aden. Harry had told Snape once that when he had been Anna's age, he had been expected to watch and stir things on the stove, getting small burns whose scars had faded by now. Harry was very thankful that Snape had obviously not betrayed his trust by telling Laura.

Draco came up and peered down at the bundle in Harry's arms. "Now don't you let Harry influence you too much. He's a bit of a troublemaker, you know, always sneaking around in his Invisibility Cloak after hours. And you're definitely not to take any hair styling advice from him. You're going to be seeing a lot of him and he's practically another stepbrother to you, but don't let him turn you into a Gryffindor, okay?"

Harry looked up at his friend and the blonde smirked at him. Draco understood how thankful Harry was for the disguised reassurance that Harry wasn't going to be forgotten anytime soon. Draco understood that Harry needed that reassurance constantly and though he was uncomfortable being sentimental at all, he always made sure to give Harry that comfort because that was what friends did, as Draco had discovered through his friendship with the raven-haired boy.

"I want to be a Gryffindor like Harry!" Anna announced cheerfully. "And I want to be a Slytherin like Draco and Daddy! Red _and_ green! Like Christmas!" She burst out into giggles.

No one had the heart to tell her right then that she couldn't be both.

"Strange family you've got here, Aden," Harry said with a teasing grin. Draco glared at him and playfully hit him upside the head.

"You're one to talk," he pointed out.

"I never said it was a bad thing," Harry protested. "I think Aden's going to be one happy kid."

Eventually Harry left the room to go find some food for everyone, having immediately offered to go to give the family some time to themselves.

"Harry," he heard the call from behind him. He turned to see the Potions master hurrying up to him and walking with him toward the stairwell. "So what do you think?" he asked, unable to contain his joy.

Harry chuckled at the uncharacteristic demonstration of blatant happiness on Snape's part. "I think Aden's a lucky kid," Harry said before pausing. "Thank you for inviting me here. It means a lot," he said shyly.

"Of course, Harry, you're practically part of the family, and if you ever get sick of living with someone with the maturity level of a..."

"Sev," Harry said warningly before the pair froze in surprise. It was the first time Harry had called the Potions master "Sev" on his own accord.

Snape couldn't help it. After a year of becoming used to demonstrating affection for Anna, Laura and Draco, and because the idea of Harry finally, after almost a whole year, becoming comfortable enough to call him by his first name just boosted his already deliriously happy mood, he couldn't help but pull the kid into a hug.

Harry let out a small yelp of surprise, but quickly recovered and awkwardly hugged the Potions master back. He still wasn't all that used to hugs, but Ginny, Sirius and Remus had been working on changing that throughout the year, along with a few of his other friends. Not to mention every time Mrs. Weasley saw him. He swore that woman had decided a minimal time requirement for fawning over him and was constantly competing with herself to see how long she could do it for. He was definitely getting better at it, though, he decided.

Snape finally broke the hug, but kept his arm slung over Harry's shoulders as they made their way up the stairs.

"How freaked out would everyone at school be if they saw this?" Harry asked with a laugh.

"Don't you go around ruining my reputation. People are starting to think I'm going soft."

"You _are_ going soft," Harry said with a smirk.

"Never," Snape insisted.

"You _are _going soft, but that's okay, I won't tell anyone. Anyways, it's a good thing. It means Aden will have a happy childhood," Harry said wisely.

I........I

And Aden did have a happy childhood; they all made sure of that.

I..............................................................................................I

And thus concludes the 353 page story that is Flawed Perfection! I really hope you all enjoyed the fic! Alright, as you all know there's still going to be a very small epilogue. Also, I am still writing the alternate ending to Recnac. If you do not belong to my yahoo group, I suggest you join as there will be some small stuff there that will not be posted on There are already a few deleted scenes there that can't be found here. Also, you can read all the contest entries written by the members and vote for your favorite. It's absolutely free and anonymous, of course, so come on down! If you're interested but not sure how to join, just email me at celebony at yahoo dot com

Alright, I'd like to thank my beta **Senri**, who has been wonderful in dealing with my perfectionist attitude and has caught things that boggle my mind. I think he has editing superpowers at times. Senri, though sometimes you claim to have nothing to do, we both know how scary some of my chapters were before you cleaned up all the spelling and grammatical errors. As I always say, you rock! (And "gah" is not your word)

A special thanks to **Wiccan PussyKat**, **ParanoiaIn2005 **and**Myr Halcyon** for their constant and extraordinarily in-depth reviews. I looked forward to hearing from you guys every chapter. Also to **Zarabrooke **who sent me the most in depth reviews you could imagine by email. I've missed hearing from you since you went off to school, but your emails always make me do a little jig of joy. I'd also like to thank **Marci **for starting and managing my yahoo group!! Marci, you're fantastic!!

Thank you to all who've reviewed, this fic would not have even gotten close to where it did without you all! You guys nudged me along and kept this story going and for that, I thank you all! There's so many more of you that I should be listing here that I know I'm forgetting, but really, thank you all! Also, thank you to all those who have taken an active interest in the yahoo group! To those who have written for the contests and have voted in them. To **Shikatanai** for doing all the art! It's fantastic. Thanks to **Earthmomling **for always emailing me and being so active in the yahoo group. Thank you to **Katie** who has been such a great friend and who's always encouraging me with the fic, even if she's not so sly after I'd let her read the chapters early. Katie, when I say keep it quiet that I've let you read the chapter early, dropping hints into chats is not quite what I'm going for, hahaha.

So I take my leave from this fic, but if you ever want to ask questions, give suggestions, clue in on where I am with my next project or what I'm working on, etc, just email me at or join my yahoo group!

**One last plea**: PLEASE REVIEW!!!! Just as before, even if you don't like reviewing or if it's a thousand years after I originally posted, please review. I want to get an idea of how many people read this and would love to hear from you, even if it's a single-word review. I promise you I read every single one. Thanks!!

Now, onto review responses:

**El Shabang: **Wow, I can't believe my fic has made such an impact on you! That's possibly the best compliment I've ever received. I'm so thrilled you got such a grasp of the characters as that was really my main agenda. If people got nothing out of it but that, I'd be happy. Lol, I think I know what you mean about the characters being different yet the same; I'm glad you thought so! I wanted to take the main characters we all know and love and put my own spin on them, or see what they'd do in such drastic and dramatic situations. The thing I'm most thrilled about is the fact that you've been able to take something from it even if it's just a Harry Potter fanfic. The fact that something I wrote had that kind of impact on someone, as corny as it sounds, almost makes me tear up with joy. Ouch, that really did sound corny. I just want you to know that your review has made me so unspeakably happy, I've printed it out and glued it to the inside of my notebook for this story. Thank you so much for it. I can't tell you what it means to me.

**Leontine-456: **Lol, trust me, FP is a lot longer than RT. It's around 50 pages longer! In Recnac I started out with about 4 pages per chapters and with Flawed I always did at least 10, which accounts for the fewer chapters. No, Draco doesn't get sorted into Gryffindor, as you can see here. Draco's definitely Slytherin to the core. Lol, for now, Draco's still single, poor guy. Unfortunately he has a little problem with thinking he's better than everyone, so that doesn't really attract the kind of girls that would make good girlfriends. Snape still doesn't exactly act like a nice guy, but he's more fair, he just wants to keep his reputation as the intimidating Potions master. Lol, at least for now, Harry's not doing much in the way of pranking, but who knows what the influence of the two Marauders will do to him in the future. Er...Sirius didn't teach a dueling club, I think you're getting your fics confused, lol. Nah, Sirius isn't much of the teaching sort, but he'll visit quite often, I'm sure. He's too restless not to. Sirius does know how to cook, at least some things. He just has some very interesting accidents in the kitchen and people just like to tease him because he might not be the best. But Harry's never really lived with a family who put in the effort to cook for him, so he likes Sirius's cooking. Not to mention that after hearing the things going on over at the Dursleys, he's more content to keep Harry out of the kitchen. And no, I'm not going to write a six-year, because if I let Harry be happy, it would just be too boring, and if something happened to him, people would kill me for doing it to him. He's been through enough. I'm going to let him be for now and live the life he's always wanted: happy and boring. I may do another fic that doesn't take place in the Recnac universe, but we'll see.

**Whispyraven: **Wow, long review! If you want to keep up on extra scenes, you'll probably want to join my yahoo group. That way you'll be sure to get the updates, and that's where I'd be posting them anyways. You've caught a glimpse of Harry and Ginny's relationship here and you will again in the sequel, so that should hopefully answer your question. I'm so glad you liked the Harry/Sirius talks. Lol, um, I didn't write Sirius and Remus as a couple, just as friends, but whoever would like to pretend they're together is welcome to. Yes! I think you were the only one to get that, but yes, Luhrman as in Baz Luhrmann (just realized that was with two Ns). Moulin Rouge is my favorite movie and I think Baz Luhrmann's a genius! And yes, Ewan McGregor's a very fine man, lol. Hottie! I'm glad you liked the scenes with Anna and Harry and yes, Eloise is definitely right.

**Thunder's Shadow: **Really? Wow, thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked the chapter so much! I'm so thrilled you enjoyed so many aspects of it. Many like one area of the other, the angst or the romance, but it seems like you enjoyed the whole of it, which makes me very happy. About the Fred and George thing, I'm so glad you liked that bit. I didn't even really think about it until I was writing that scene and all of a sudden I realized how different they, and everyone, was reacting than they had in the past, and then I sort of realized how nobody's ever told Harry that he doesn't have to be the hero. Nobody ever chides him for putting his life on the line; they congratulate him for it! Doesn't that seem a bit wrong? Sorry, small rant there. Actually, I was really torn about the ending. I really considered ending it where you suggested, but from the beginning I had this vision of the story ending with Sirius seeing Harry off at the train station to show that things were going to be different now. JK always ends the story with Harry getting off the train to go with the Dursleys and I thought it was symbolic for me to end this one with him getting_ on_ the train with his new family there, to show how his life has totally turned around. Wow, that was a ramble. Anyways, I couldn't resist putting it in. Lol, I love long reviews! Never worry about making them too long, lol. I'm glad you like the Anna parts and you're right, Harry certainly is overdue for the chance to act like a kid. Thanks for the wonderful review!

**ThreeToedSloth: **lol, well I'm glad you forgive me! I know I've been extremely evil in the length of time it's been taking for me to update and I'm so sorry. Hahaha! I can just imagine your mom closing the door behind her, hearing you burst out into tears and just be very confused. Lol, nope, Laura and Snape are already married so no need to do that in the sequel. I'm so glad you liked the chapter so much!

**Acciodanrad9: **Thank you so much for the long review! Lol, I must be a major sucker for Harry. I just can't seem to kill him off, lol. I think now Sirius will be a lot more aware of how he acts around Harry, finally coming out of denial about how badly Harry was doing. I'm so glad you liked the Harry/Sirius scenes, I really liked writing them. They're two of the characters who've needed the most help throughout the fic, and now they're learning how to help each other, which is exactly where they need to be. Harry's finally able to trust Sirius and Sirius is finding his place as a father figure in Harry's life. Harry definitely has a strange family, but he's going to be happy for once.

**ParanoiaIn2005: **Lol, that's okay, you've left me many long reviews in the past so I think I can forgive you. I know all about time crunches. Lol, if you're worried about withdrawal, join my yahoo group! There's going to be a bunch of extra little goodies over there. Deleted scenes, of course, and then there's the contests with the fan-written entries based off the fics which are really great! Hmm, I'll have to read through the dialogue again. Don't worry, it's fine to have some criticisms, you're nice about them and they're good for me. They help me become better at writing.

**Sarah the Bardess **(Lol, thanks! I'm so glad you liked it!! Big hug right back at ya!), **stahchild, angel74 **(Why thank you! I know! I can hardly believe it myself! It means so much to me that you like my writing since I think you are such an incredible author and of course, you're an English teacher so your opinion obviously has a lot of credence. So thank you so much for all your wonderful input!), **Charlie Quill, Von, Alaranth-88, Hollywood Dreams **(lol, if Fred and George had actually managed to turn Snape's hair pink, I don't think they would have made it to the end of the fic alive, lol. But I love the idea! Maybe I'll do a little drabble on it), **Marci018 **(Why thank you! I'm so glad you liked the last chapter! Yeah! I definitely messed up with those, but I went and quickly changed it, so thanks for the clue-in! I hoped you liked the Snape/Harry convo in the epilogue, I'll work on the Draco/Harry one though. I do have more stories in mind! It might take me a little while to get my act together and write them, but until then, I think I'll play around with some one-shots and short things and such. Thank you once again for helping me with the yahoo group. You know how much I'm enjoying it), **hpfanchrissy1502, ibcna, monica85, azntgr01, Sword Wielder-Firebreath **(er, you okay? Lol), **Dana (MP) **(I'll definitely try to get more of the individual chats as extra scenes at my yahoo group. Thank you!), **Japanese-jew **(er, no, this isn't the one where Harry can't do magic), **DreamersDisease **(I'd never leave you guys hanging! Really? Why thank you!), **Nation El-Diablo, darkerone **(lol, thanks!), **lonlyheartt, K, Melindaleo **(does little dance of joy. I love to hear that you got so emotionally involved in my stories! Ooh, I really like your idea for an extra scene! I'll definitely keep that one in mind! Lol, my beta keeps saying the same thing about Harry and Ginny. He'd be thrilled to see an uninterrupted snogging session, but unfortunately I'm horrible at writing that sort of thing, lol), **kneh13, Aishwarya **(Thanks! I actually do have another fic that I'm planning, though not a sequel. I don't know if I'll actually do it, or how long it would take me to get started on it, but I do have one in mind. In the meanwhile, I might play around with some shorter things. I'm not sure yet.), **griffter, weird13one, angelsleeping, blink gurl017, holly **(lol, yeah, I know, I named them both that on purpose), **dominy **(wow, thank you!! A masterpiece? Lol, well that might be pushing it, but I love it anyways! Don't worry, the sequel will at least be a quite long one-shot, not one of those 200 word drabbles.), **Lia Tween **(lol, thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much! And no, I definitely never get sick of flattery, hahaha), **A-Brighter-Dawn **(Thank you!), **Julie, ChildOfDarkness (and Kenny!) **(lol, well, I've never seen that episode, but hey Kenny anyways. And hey you too. I'm sorry I made Harry live, but if it makes you feel better, I'm currently working on the alternate version of Recnac where Harry dies. Does that help at all? Lol, we'll see about posting that here.), **lyss33, Jenn the Freak **(hahaha, well I'm so glad you enjoyed it, even though your face hurts now. Lol, thank you so much! I really want to be a writer, even though I doubt I'll major in it. Need a backup career, after all! But thank you so much for the wonderful compliment!), **Paddycakepadfoot **(lol, I'm so glad you liked that part...even though I never thought to read it like that. Hahaha), **W0lf QuEEn, Jessikat, Lourdes, pinksakuya** (lol, well I'm glad to be the one to make you cry the hardest of all the authors. Hahaha, I'm so thrilled you liked it and can see it as a novel! Thank you so much! Lol, I do hope to write more fics that you might enjoy), **Impish Delight, Phoenixmarauder, americanpie, peter-the rat **(thanks! I'm glad you liked it!)**, Leena7 **(Yay! It's always a triumph for me to make a reader cry...as sadistic as that sounds, lol. I'm so glad you've found your own flawed perfection. Hold onto those people who pulled you out of that place that a lot of us seem to get trapped in sometimes.), **m, icy manipulator, Painted Fire **(hahaha, you're very welcome), **HaRrYrOxMuhSoX **(well, I have another fic planned in my head, but I need a break before I decide if I want to tackle it.), **Magic Marauder **(lol, you aren't the only one to beg for another sequel, but I think I'll give Harry a break and let him lead a nice boring life...or at least the Harry from the Recnac/Flawed universe. I'm so glad to hear that I'll remain on your Author's Alert list. Thank you so much! I'll try to continue to entertain you guys with my drabblings despite my crazy college schedule in the future.), **Ms Hobgoblin **(Thank you! I'm so glad to hear I won't be booted off your author alert list any time soon!), **Flaignhan, BabyBlu4 **(Thank you so much for that wonderful compliment! I'm so glad to hear you were emotionally involved, that makes it easier to get across what I'm trying to, so thank you for being such a good reader.), **Babylon for Life **(Lol, aww, it's okay. hands over box of tissues Unfortunately, as you can see, Draco didn't play a very big part in the epilogue, but we'll see about the sequel.), **Crazy.Homicidal.Insane.Cute.Ki **(hahaha, lol, I'll see what I can do in the future. For the meanwhile, I guess you'll have to cruise around for other fics! Lol.), **htbmny**, **cherry8914, Shawna **(thank you! I'm glad you liked the ending and thank you for leaving a review even though you normally don't.), **texasjeanette **(Lol, thank you! I'll see what I can do about those extra scenes), **AC TORPEY **(hahaha, I'll see what I can do), **Wynjara **(I think if they'd actually managed to turn Snape's hair colors, they wouldn't have survived 'til the end of the b-day party), **Nita **(Thank you! I think the Harry from the Recnac/Flawed universe deserves a nice break, wouldn't you say? I think if I tortured him any more, I'd have people at my door with pickaxes.), **Lupin123 **(Thanks!), **shadowsfriend **(Thank you so much for being an active voter in the contests. They're very entertaining, in my opinion. I do have some more ideas, one in particular, but it would be a big commitment, so I'll have to take a break and see.), **Luinlothana **(Yeah, Draco definitely deserved to be part of the waking Harry up, especially after all he went through, really all for Harry. He's changed a lot throughout the fics, as has Sirius, and you've pointed out two things to show that. They both had to grow a lot, just as Harry did. Well, hopefully the scene with Harry and Snape in the epilogue made up for the lack of one in the last chapter. And gasp! He actually said he was sorry.), **maya100, lost angel92 **(thanks! I'm happy to know I'll always have a place on your alert list)**, EriEka127, Purple Ghost Sausage, Princess Sara **(Well, I'm honored to be the first author to be able to make you shed some tears, and thank you for becoming emotionally involved in the story! I'll definitely try to write that Harry/Ron convo I glossed over in the epilogue.), **cat 44 **(I'm sorry you found Flawed to be slow, but I'm glad you at least liked Recnac. Lol, yeah, the last chapter was definitely filled with sap, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for a happy ending. You're right, Sirius hung around Crookshanks for awhile there. He was a bit nutters at the time though, and very desperate, I mean, he slashed up poor Ron's bedcurtains while he was sleeping! Once he came to his senses though, and calmed down a little bit from the "kill Peter" thing his fear returned full force.), **sami1010220 **(All the deleted scenes are going to my yahoo group in the files section. There are already about four shorties in there. Lol, nah, Harry's had enough torture. I couldn't put him through another sequel. I happen to be horribly forgetful so even if I tried to email you if I did something, I'd forget to do it. I'd suggest becoming part of my yahoo group or adding me to your authors alert list if you want to keep informed about updates. It's the only way I can assure that you'd know), **Tigerlily, Colleen, crissy **(lol, as much as I'd love to, I think Harry's in for a bit of a calmer life for now.)**, chip **(lol, yeah, Snape with pink hair's definitely a scary thought), **SiriusWOlf, CurlsofSerenity, Lauren, Theoddguy **(I'm sorry you were disappointed. Many were, but that was the way it had to be. It wouldn't have been very climactic if Harry could just blow all the D.E.s away with his extra magic when he went to save Ron. I wanted to show that he's a hero even without his extra powers. It takes much more bravery to do something like that when you know you don't have the upper hand. And no, Voldemort's life/magic energy died with him because it was in his body when his body died. Wow, flashbacks to explanations in Recnac, lol), **cute-kittycat-in-love, Fiery Ferret, mk-not-r2d2 **(No, I'm actually American and go to school here. I do want to study abroad in the UK though, hopefully in London, but that won't be for another 2 years)


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